If you’re worried about flight delays almost as much as you’re worried about flying, the government is here to help with at least one of those fears.

On the FAA’s website a link http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp provides a map where you can click on a major U.S. city and get up-to-date information about delays in and out of that city’s airport.   

The morning before Thanksgiving, most cities appeared with a green dot, indicating delays of 15 minutes or less.  One city has a yellow light indicating delays of 15 to 30 minutes.  A few East Coast cities had red dots (they really looked more orange than red), indicating various weather delays.  If you scroll over the city’s colored dot, a box pops up listing the actual delay time for that particular airport, or in the case of one airport, the box does not indicate specific information, just “general weather delay.”  I took that to mean that the unpredictability of the weather made it hard to pinpoint anything for sure.  But that's the weather for you though--it's pretty unreliable!

There's even a place to select a specific city and more detailed information will appear. Or you can zoom in on a particular region of the country, and some of the smaller airports will appear. 

This link is not only useful for flyers but also for those waiting on the ground for flights to arrive.  If you're checking a particular airline’s website to see if a flight is scheduled to arrive on time, you can also doublecheck the FAA’s website to get a big picture of what's going on all over the country.  Big delays in one part of the country often end up affecting traffic at other airports as well.   

So if you’re getting ready to fly during this busy holiday season, the FAA website is a great tool to check before you leave for the airport, that is, if you’ve decided to face your fear and fly.  It can definitely can help ease an anxiety that ALL flyers experience, not the fear of the plane crashing, but the worry that the plane won't be departing and arriving on time.