GOOGLE’S FLIGHT OF FANCY

GOOGLE can now use machine learning to guess if your flight will be delayed or cancelled, with startlingly high accuracy.

A new update to the Google Flights tool can warn you ahead of time, even before your airline has notified you about delays.

The update, which is live to users, checks historical flight data to work out if your journey is at risk.

“Around this time of year, snow birds fly out on tropical getaways, skiers and snowboarders take a weekend to hit the slopes and potential flight delays are stressful for all travellers,” Google Flights product manager Anket Mathur said. “Google Flights can now help you predict those flight delays.”

Google basically combs through loads of historical data to find common patterns or themes that lead to delays.

It will use info based on locations, weather and aircraft arriving late to the airport, so it can more accurately predict when your flight will be delayed – and by how much.

To make sure it doesn’t mislead you, Google will only warn you when its algorithms are “80 per cent sure there’ll be a delay”.