United Airlines Will Now Text Passengers Live Weather Radar

United Airlines is now texting its travelers links to local, live radar maps during weather delays.

While texting updates to gates and departure times has become standard in the travel industry, United is now the first carrier to go as far as to text its passengers real-time weather maps during delays.

The maps, which will also be accessible in the United app under flight status, will show weather details across flight paths, and show how weather in one part of the country might be impacting flights elsewhere.

Passengers won’t be able to do anything about the weather, but the hope is that it gives them more details and allows them to stay informed as to what’s happening so they are better able to adjust plans, if need be.

The update comes just ahead of the July 4 holiday, which is expected to be one of the busiest travel weeks of the year for many in the U.S.. United, for its part, is expecting more than five million passengers flying between June 28 and July 8, up more than 7% compared to last year.

“With more people traveling this summer than ever, we wanted to give our customers an easier way to stay connected to real-time information about their flight and texting was the simplest solution,” said Jason Birnbaum, United’s Chief Information Officer.

“We know customers appreciate transparency and by combining innovative technology-enabled tools with people power, we can give more people, even more in-the-moment details about their flight.”