Check flight status with AI chat

Workflow purpose

This guide demonstrates how to use Proto's platform to let a passenger check a flight's status – on time, delayed, or cancelled – directly through AI chat, with live gate information where available. This is a simple, high-volume lookup, but it's one of the most repetitive questions an airline or airport support line receives, which makes it a strong first automation candidate.

Who can benefit from this guide:

Airlines and airports fielding repetitive flight status questions
Ground handling and customer service teams during disruption events
Travel agencies offering flight tracking as part of customer support
Operations teams wanting to reduce call volume during delays

Check flight status

This workflow looks up a flight by number and returns its current status and gate information. See how to check flight status with AI chat.

Just starting with the platform?

For initial setup of your AI agent – including workspace setup, agent training, and channel deployment – please start here. This workflow guide assumes your AI agent is set up and ready for more advanced configurations.

1. Create a trigger

Purpose: Start the flow when a passenger asks about a flight’s status.

Navigate to the Actions tab in the AI agent settings.
Click “+ Add Trigger” and select the Message Received trigger type.
Name the trigger “Flight Status”.
Add a description such as “Triggers if user asks about a flight’s status, delay, or gate.”

2. Survey – flight number

Purpose: Get the one detail needed to look the flight up.

Add a Survey action titled Flight lookup.
Field flight_number – Text – What’s your flight number or booking reference? – Required: On.

3. Send API request – flight information system

Purpose: Pull the live status rather than a scheduled time that may no longer be accurate.

Add a Send API request action to your flight information system with {flight_number}. Map the response to flight_status, gate, and estimated_time.

4. Send the status

Purpose: Give the passenger everything they need in one message.

Add a Send message action: “Flight {flight_number} is currently {flight_status}. Gate: {gate}. Estimated time: {estimated_time}.”

5. Test the flow

Purpose: Confirm the lookup handles both normal and disrupted flights correctly.

Test with a flight number that’s on time and confirm the gate and time display correctly.
Test with a delayed or cancelled flight and confirm the message reflects the actual current status.
Test with an invalid flight number and confirm a graceful “we couldn’t find that flight” message rather than an error.

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