Daily arrival briefing emails: flight ETA, weather, pickup notes

Build an agent workflow that prepares arrival-day briefings for guests, clients, and candidates flying in to meet our team. The agent should run on a cron trigger twice a day: once at 6am local time as the primary run, and again at noon as a same-day safety net for afternoon and evening arrivals.

Each run, the agent should call Airtable List Records on an Arrivals table, filtered to records where Arrival Date is today. Each row is expected to have fields along the lines of Guest Name, Host Email, Flight Number, Arrival Airport (IATA), Arrival Airport Latitude, Arrival Airport Longitude, and Pickup Notes. If a base or table id is not configured yet, the agent should ask the user once and remember it.

For each row, the agent should gather live context: call AeroDataBox Get Flight Status using the flight number to get the current ETA, gate, terminal, and any delay; call AeroDataBox Get Flight Delay Statistics for that flight number to get the route's historical on-time performance; and call Weather Get Weather Forecast at the destination airport's coordinates to find the forecast nearest the scheduled arrival hour.

The agent should then decide whether the host actually needs an update. Skip rows where the flight is on time, the gate is unchanged from what is on file, and the weather is unremarkable. For rows that do warrant an email, the agent should draft a short personalized briefing and send it to the host via Gmail Send a Message. The email should be addressed to the host by name and include the guest's name, the revised pickup time based on the live ETA, the gate and terminal, the weather to expect at curbside at the arrival hour, a one-line confidence note based on the route's historical on-time rate, and any flagged risks like a large delay or a weather alert. Keep the tone calm and concise so the host can scan it in under a minute.

After deciding what to send (or not send), the agent should call Airtable Update Record on the row to write back the latest ETA into the appropriate field (e.g. Latest ETA) so the rest of the team sees consistent info even when no email goes out. Optionally include a short note column indicating whether an email was sent and why.

Use judgement when reasoning about delays and weather, and make the email feel like a thoughtful note from a colleague, not a system alert. Use plain language, no jargon. If a flight cannot be found or an airport's coordinates are missing, the agent should still update the row with a brief note for the team rather than failing the whole run.

Additional information

What does this prompt do?

Reads your Airtable list of guests arriving today and pulls each one's flight number, host, and pickup notes.
Checks live flight status, the route's on-time history, and the weather at the destination airport for the arrival hour.
Emails each host a short briefing with the revised pickup time, gate and terminal, weather to expect at curbside, and any delay or weather risks worth flagging.
Writes the latest ETA back into Airtable so the rest of the team sees the same number, and stays quiet on rows where nothing changed.

What do I need to use this?

An Airtable base with a table of upcoming arrivals (guest name, host email, flight number, airport, pickup notes).
An AeroDataBox account for live flight status and historical delay data.
A Gmail account for the briefing emails to your hosts.
Coordinates for the destination airports so weather can be checked at the arrival hour.

How can I customize it?

Change the run time. The default is 6am with a noon safety net, but you can shift it to whenever your team starts their day.
Adjust what counts as worth sending. Tighten or loosen the rules for which delays, weather alerts, or ETA changes trigger an email.
Swap the recipient. Send the briefing to a fleet dispatcher, front desk, or shared concierge inbox instead of the named host.
Extend the briefing. Add hotel info, dietary preferences, or meeting context from extra Airtable columns.

Frequently asked questions

What does the briefing email actually look like?

A short personalized note to the host with the guest's name, revised pickup time, gate and terminal, expected weather at the curb, a one-line confidence note based on the route's history, and any risks worth flagging like a major delay or storm.

What happens if a guest's flight is on time and nothing has changed?

The agent stays quiet. It only sends an email when there is something worth telling the host, like a delay, a gate change, or weather that affects the pickup.

Why does it run twice a day?

The 6am run gives hosts a heads-up first thing. The noon run catches same-day reschedules and late-breaking delays for afternoon and evening arrivals, so nobody is caught off guard.

Can I use this for candidates flying in for interviews, or hotel check-ins?

Yes. The same pattern works for any arrival you track in a spreadsheet, including job candidates, conference speakers, hotel VIPs, and sales prospects visiting the office.

What if my Airtable columns are named differently?

Tell the agent which columns hold the guest name, host email, flight number, and airport. It can map to whatever you already have.