So before your flight, you do everything you are supposed to do with plenty of time. You are packed, ready to go and even called the airport before you arrived an hour early.

Then, it turns out that your flight has been delayed four hours and you could’ve spent some time hanging out, stopping to eat somewhere or just relaxing and watching TV. What can be done to avoid this inconvenient situation? Text alerts can often arrive too late. There is a new tool called FlightCaster (flightcaster.com) which uses a formula along with real-time data from FlightStats, the National Weather Service and 10 years of historical flight information to form a highly accurate flight status prediction up to six hours before takeoff.

An hour before your flight, your airline and FlightStats may state that your flight is on time while FlightCaster will inform you that its flight status prediction calculates that there is an 8 percent chance that your flight is on time, 47 percent chance that it will be delayed less than an hour and 45 percent chance that it will be delayed more than an hour. FlightCaster flight status prediction is currently available only for domestic travel.

Use the website for free or download the iPhone or BlackBerry app for $4.99.