StreamThru is a new, free service that aims to keep travellers informed of the status of their flight via SMS text messages.
Passengers flying from UK airports can register with the company free of charge and enter any booked flights into their account. Four hours before the scheduled departure time, StreamThru sends a text message to the customer”s mobile confirming the flight details and advising on the predicted take-off time.
Approximately 30 minutes before departure another text message is sent, with live flight status, boarding information and a gate number if available. A maximum of two advertisements for retail offers within the airport will be sent for each flight, which are targeted to the individual based on information uploaded into their StreamThru profile.
An independent survey, conducted in February this year to coincide with the company”s launch, revealed that one in 20 business travellers completely miss their meetings due to delayed flights. The same number misses flights due to unclear information within the airport terminal.
”These results make for grim reading and so it”s no surprise that today more than half of business travellers say they actually expect there to be a problem with their flight,” said Mantic Point (the company behind StreamThru) managing director, Mike Atherton.
”As flight numbers continue to boom off the back of low cost operators, this is a problem that”s not going away,” he added.