Chicago Airports Now Delivering Info to Handhelds

In the past few weeks, winter storms have slammed O'Hare and Midway airports with thousands of cancellations and, at times, delays averaging two hours.

In those aggravating and inevitable situations, a new e-mail flight status service introduced Thursday would have helped scores of fliers and those picking up or dropping them off. The Chicago Aviation Department's new e-mail system lets users know the latest information on a flight's arrival or departure time. The system works on Web-enabled Blackberries and cell phones.

"The more ways we can get accurate, up-to-date flight information to our travelers, the better," Chicago aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said. "This is just another option for travelers who are on the go."

Using the new system can seem a little tricky.

For information on arrivals, send an e-mail to or , depending on the airport. Similarly, send an e-mail to or for departure information.

The message should contain at least one of the following: flight number, time of scheduled arrival or departure, name of airline and originating or destination airport.

A response letter will come within minutes, listing the top nine flights that match the search criteria and their updated status. The system works only for flights originally scheduled within the next four hours.

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