Patent ID: 8874458

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, using a computer system, data associated with a selected airline flight from one or more data sources, the selected airline flight having an estimated time of departure from a departure gate; and providing, using the computer system, one or more functional alerts specific to the selected airline flight, comprising: determining if an event has occurred; and if the event has occurred, then providing a functional alert regarding the occurrence of the event, comprising displaying an alert output on an output device, the alert output comprising a message indicating that the event has occurred; wherein the selected airline flight further has a scheduled time of departure from the departure gate, a scheduled time of arrival at an arrival gate, an estimated time of arrival at the arrival gate, a flight-planned block time equaling a first time period that begins at the estimated time of departure and ends at the estimated time of arrival, and a scheduled block time equaling a second time period that begins at the scheduled time of departure and ends at the scheduled time of arrival; and wherein providing one or more functional alerts specific to the selected airline flight further comprises: determining if there is a difference between the flight-planned block time and the scheduled block time; if there is a difference between the flight-planned block time and the scheduled block time, then: generating a target time of departure of the selected airline flight; and displaying on the output device the target time of departure of the selected airline flight; if the flight-planned block time is shorter than the scheduled block time, then: displaying on the output device and proximate the displayed target time a message indicating that the departure of the selected airline flight can be delayed until the target time of departure; wherein the displayed target time is later in time than each of the scheduled time of departure and the estimated time of departure; and if the flight-planned block time is longer than the scheduled block time, then: displaying on the output device and proximate the displayed target time a message recommending that the selected airline flight depart earlier at the target time of departure; wherein the displayed target time is earlier in time than each of the scheduled time of departure and the estimated time of departure; and if the flight-planned block time and the scheduled block time are substantially equal, then displaying on the output device a message indicating that the selected airline flight is to depart on schedule.