Gatwick Airport has launched a chatbot on Facebook Messenger that can provide flight updates and information on its retail and food outlets.
Passengers will need to message the new Gatwick Chatbot page rather than the main Gatwick Airport page.
The bot can currently only answer queries in English, but the airport says new languages will be added next year.
It also plans to expand the service to new platforms including Whatsapp and Apple Business Messenger.
Business Traveller tried putting a few questions to the bot, which Gatwick is calling Gail.
While it doesn’t provide any more information than you could find on the main Gatwick website, and the questions need to be fairly straightforward (it was puzzled by our queries about potential strike action this weekend and disabled assistance, for example) it does provide a convenient way to get flight updates via mobile, without having to download an app.
You also don’t need to look up your flight number; typing your destination will bring up a list of the different flights on a given day, and you can then choose to receive updates for it.