Looking for an interesting story idea?

Here are a few interesting things that we can use for ourselves AND for story development thanks to Mindy McAdams.

McAdams wrote in her blog about a flight delay calculator the Las Vegas Sun put together. For any one flying into Vegas, the site is great.

But how about flying to loads of other places?

Thanks to the Sun, there are links for Department of Transportation and Department of Home Land Security for flight delays by airline and airport.

Here are the links for Reagan National and Dulles:

Dulles: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1
Reagan National: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1

Here are the statistic by airline: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/carriers.asp

And with less detail here is the DHS delay chart: http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html

The way I look at this, students can develop stories of students flying here and there during the summer or other holidays.

They can use the data to back up stories about the frustrations that surround all air travel these days. This data can back up the anectodal stories that we all have after a trip.

Feature stories about travel and travel frustration just about always sell BUT only if they go beyond the "Boy. Were things bad at the airport" kind of story. These charts and tables add a lot of good background for potential stories.