Extensive research from PC World on the busiest airports and other data from the New York Times flew into the graphic revealing which airports have fast upload and download speeds and which airlines give you the most tech amenities like mobile check-ins and Wi-Fi on-board. Plus there is much, much more as you will surely discover (click to expand):

Via: Online MBA News

The tool, published for free by comparison engine FindTheBest, even lets you filter and compare airlines by price per checked bag, primary operating regions, airline fees and more, simplifying the process of making sure you’re not only on time, but you’re not getting slammed for things other airlines won’t charge you for. Next time you’re planning a trip or choosing an airline, make sure to take a peek at this tool so you can minimize the time you spend sitting around at the airport. You spend enough time getting herded through security, why spend time waiting for a late flight?  Happy travels!

Before your flight

• The “right” airline
  Different airlines have different planes and different fit-outs and service levels. Take this into account when you choose your flight. For example, it might be worth paying a little more for flying on an Airbus A380 plane as your experience will be considerably nicer than say a Boeing 747. In this case it’s because the European plane is newer, quieter and features advanced air filtering systems.
  Furthermore, different airlines and aircraft types have different entertainment systems. If watching movies is your thing, make sure the airline of your choice offers what you are looking for. If not, make sure to stock up your iPod with your favourite media.
• A smart seat choice
  Most airlines allow you to choose your seat at the time of the booking. Make use of this and choose the best possible seat. Which one that is, depends on your personal preference. Travelling alone, I prefer seats at the back of the aircraft as that’s where the chances for  empty seats are the highest. I also prefer an aisle seat allowing me to freely get up whenever I want. Check good seats on sites like SeatGuru.
• A Stress free airport experience
  Make sure you get to the airport with enough time to have a good airport experience. Whilst not everyone likes airports, getting there late and having to stress out at every queue surely won’t help. Plus LateDeparture covers many airports, so that if you have ample time, check our review of the airport you’re travelling through to find out what interesting things you can do.

During the flight

• Smart food choices
  Try to eat healthy and choose nutritious dishes. Also think about which of the dishes offered can be cooked well in an aircraft (think microwave). Bring some snacks from home to fill the gaps between service or to make up for a meal you didn’t like. Another good idea is to bring some fruit with you. They give you a sense of freshness and surely are healthy.
• Hydration is important
  The air in an aircraft is very dry, so you get easily dehydrated. Make sure you drink a lot, preferably water.
• Sleep when you can
  What I mean here is that you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you can’t sleep. Watch another (boring) movie and fall asleep halfway through it. I often find that a couple of short-ish naps are totally okay for getting around some of the jet lag.
• Change of activities
  Try to do different activities in order to break up the long flight. For example, start with reading a book, then, when dinner arrives, you switch to a movie, after that you take a nap, later you work a bit on your autobiography (or whatever you’re working on) and so on. You will see, time will fly, quite literally.
• Best for you
  Know what’s best for you and act accordingly. With experience you will know what helps you best to do certain things. For example if you know, like me, that the combination of a glass of red wine and an average movie puts you to sleep, you can then use this “recipe” if you want to sleep on the flight.
• Gear up
  Changing light conditions and unfamiliar noises (never mind the crying babies) are definitely not helping anyone to go to sleep. Therefore make use of the usually supplied eye mask. Also bring some earplugs or ask the cabin crew to give you some. I found this particular combination to really help me falling asleep quickly.
• Exercise
  I know what you’re thinking, but trust me a little exercise during the flight is a good way of keeping your body balanced (plus it can seriously help reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis). At the very minimum you should do some leg and foot exercise. And better even if you get up every so often and have a little walk around. The earlier suggestion of drinking a lot will help you too as you  will automatically have to go to the restroom a couple of times. So will the one about choosing the right aircraft as bigger ones obviously allow for longer walking tours.

Why not try a few of these suggestions next time you fly? Make sure you let us know how you went! Save travels!

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by kagatolnx]

You’re certainly in luck as the aptly named app “WindowSeat” can help you out. It shows the current location of your flight and offers brief write-ups about the scenery, sights and cities scrolling past the wing. The advantage of the application is that it doesn’t require an in-flight internet connection: it’s designed to work even when your phone is in airplane mode.

To do this, WindowSeat downloads your aircraft’s official flight plan just before you depart. That plan contains the route your pilots expect to follow from origin to destination. Once you’re airborne, just tell WindowSeat when you took off, and it will guesstimate your position on its map. Tap on a nearby dot and you’ll get short, informative blurbs on geographic features, major conurbations and national parks and monuments. It’s easy to adjust the elapsed time, or to fast-forward for a preview of what’s coming next.

The app has some limitations as for example the plane might take a more direct route to the one it filed or it might have to divert due to traffic or weather updates, all of which the app won’t know. But even with these limitations it’s a must-have for every (geeky) traveller. And with a price tag of only US$2.99 it even won’t break your travel budget. There’s also a free Lite version, which covers departures from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin only.

[Screenshot and excerpt from Mark Vanhoenacker - all rights reserved]

FlightStats.com is the perfect site for anyone who would likes to do a bit of homework before they fly. According to their website FlightStats’ five hundred plus independent developer network generates over three million data queries per day, which powers major sites like USA Today and Accuweather, top selling mobile apps like FlightTrack and Kayak, digital signage solutions like Marriott Courtyard’s GoBoards, email/SMS alerts by Alaska Airlines and in-terminal displays at over 30 airports. Millions more access FlightStats through data sharing agreements with Google and Bing.

Whilst providing all sorts of detailed stats about an airport, airline or even a single flight, FlightStats summarizes its statistics in a nice way on its “global trends site“. There you can check the delay and cancellation data over a 30 day range or just look at what’s happening today, anywhere in the world. Looking at the 30-day United Stats stats right now for example, is telling me that during this time period flying with American Airlines from Chicago’s  O’Hare (IATA: ORD) to Dallas/Ft. Worth (IATA: DFW) wasn’t a great idea if you planned to be on time or even get there at all.

Be mindful though when looking at these stats as they are not giving you any details about the total aircraft handled in the given time period. The above example could as well just show up on the top as American Airlines probably operates the most flights and Dallas/Ft. Worth as well as Chicago’s O’Hare airports are among the largest in the country. No wonder the total number of delays and cancellations therefore is high for them. Nevertheless the FlightStats tools are a good indicator for any traveller who wants to dig a bit deeper as sometimes it does pay off to do your homework and avoid the notorious bottlenecks altogether.

Surely now you want to spend more time actually exploring your departure airport before you board. LateDeparture is the right place to find all the information about what you can do at a given airport. Why, for example, don’t you try out that “10 minute manicure” at Miami’s International airport (IATA: MIA) as suggested in our article here?

Once airborne, I suggest you unwind and leave those emails to themselves. Instead, you could try Comcast’s new “Xfinity TV” which includes top-programs like HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” or Showtime’s “Dexter” you can’t otherwise find on other sites such as Hulu. The new service includes over 90 content partners and with that offers over 150,000 video choices. Now you wish your flight was longer, don’t you?

But back to Google, here’s their original post via the official Google blog:

Not too long ago, flying home for the holidays meant disconnecting for several hours until you touched down at your destination. Today, Wi-Fi technologies allow us to stay connected even at 30,000 feet above the ground, so we can read the news, browse the web (to beat the long-haul boredom) and send that last-minute planning email before the family reunion. This holiday season, there will be more connected flyers than ever before.

On the Chrome team, we’re big fans of innovations that make our lives on the web and in the browser better—and it all starts with more ubiquitous access to the Internet. So for this holiday season, we’ve teamed up with AirTran, Delta and Virgin America to offer free Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi on every domestic flight from November 20, 2010 through January 2, 2011.

We were excited by the response from last year’s free holiday Wi-Fi program, and thought that this would be a perfect holiday gift to help you stay connected to your loved ones as you head home. You can find out more about this partnership at www.freeholidaywifi.com. If you haven’t tried Chrome yet, remember to download the browser before you take to the skies, or try it when you’re back on the ground.

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by camknows]

Tripit now just got better with the help of the guys from Appropos Mobile who announce the launch of their newest development on Monday: FlightTrack Pro for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The clever application automatically provides real-time flight cancellations, delays, gate changes, route maps, 10-day weather forecasts and more. FlightTrack Pro is the first application to synchronize TripIt itineraries to its service on iPhone and iPod touch and is available through the iTunes store for US$ 9.99 - a must-have tool for every seasoned traveler.