News

Microsoft touts Web service for business travelers

• By Rich Seeley
• December 31, 2002

To show that not all Web services deployments are back-office integration efforts, Microsoft is touting a .NET application bringing together FAA and related information to provide business travelers with real-time flight data.

With air travel more unpredictable than ever, FlyteComm Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of travel software, offers corporate developers a Web service that allows business users to check air travel status from a mobile device, according to a case study published on the Microsoft Web site.

The Web service makes it possible for business travelers to not only check if the flight they are taking is on time, but to also see if the plane they are scheduled to board later in the day is encountering delays due to bad weather or other problems, according to the case study. Back at the office, co-workers and managers can check where a business traveler's plane is at any given moment.

FlyteComm began test marketing this Web service based on the .NET Compact Framework in the final months of 2002 as a toolkit for developers. The toolkit includes a .NET Compact Framework Control as well as a sample application, both written in Visual C#, according to Microsoft officials.

The Web service connects to real-time FAA data on all commercial and business flights, which is fed into an Oracle database maintained by FlyteComm, the case study explained. Because of air travel security measures put in place since 9-11, FlyteComm stated that it must obtain FAA approval for each customer applying to use the Web service.

For information about FlyteComm go to http://www.flytecomm.com/