China Flight Delays

If you do any flying inside of China you get used to flight delays. So you sit on uncomfortable chairs in drafty waiting halls hoping your laptop battery will last and await the coming announcement with news of your flight. With a classic piece of circular logic the announcement usually goes something like: “The flight is delayed due to an aircraft delay.” In general the question is not if the flight is delayed, it is by how much. There’s a startup called FlightCaster which, in the US at least, claims to accurately predict flight delays early. I’m planning a similar service for China. The user calls and asks if their flight is delayed and is answered by a mechanical voice saying “yes”. The business plan is to roll it out for other questions that need a “yes” answer and later expand in to the new “no” market.