Five top air travel apps

Smartphone apps like TripIt, FlightTrack Pro and Kayak (left to right) make air travel a little less stressful.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Smartphone air travel apps have been designed with all phases of your trip in mind
• Kayak's app supplies travel options sorted by price, time or airline
• GateGuru's app helps travelers on a layover find whatever they need in airport directories
• FlightTrack Pro pulls vital info like gate changes and weather reports for 1,400 airlines

(Budget Travel) -- Smartphone air travel apps have been designed with all phases of your trip in mind. From finding a flight to finding a good cup of coffee during your layover, Budget Travel has selected five top apps to help make the most of your time in the sky -- or on the ground.

See Budget Travel's Ultimate Guide to Travel Apps

FIND A FLIGHT
Kayak's website set the standard for streamlined searching, and its app delivers the same ease of use on the go. Simply enter your destination and travel dates, and the app spits back options sorted by price, time or airline; a single click takes you to the corresponding booking site. Free. Download it: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPad.

TRACK YOUR ITINERARY
Forget paging through printouts of confirmation codes and terminal info. The TripIt travel app culls flight numbers, gate information, and even loyalty-program account numbers from e-mail receipts you forward. From these, it assembles a master trip itinerary you can access from anywhere. Free. Download it: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPad.

MAKE THE MOST OF A LAYOVER
Consider it Yelp for airports. GateGuru's app contains searchable directories for 98 U.S. airports (124 airports overall) and more than 25 international hubs. They take the guesswork out of finding an ATM, a decent cup of coffee, or a 10-minute massage station -- wherever you happen to be delayed. Some locations even have user reviews, rankings, and photos. Free. Download it: iPhone/iPad.

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CRAFT A CONTINGENCY PLAN
For the frequent flier who has no time for snafus, FlightTrack Pro is an essential aid. In addition to storing and tracking your flights, FlightTrack Pro pulls vital info like gate changes and weather reports for 5,000 airports and 1,400 airlines. If your flight is canceled or delayed, it's easy to search for other connections while you're standing in line for the gate agent or even from 30,000 feet -- you can access the app's route-maps feature offline when you're in the air. iPhone, iPad (FlightTrack Pro), $10; Android, Blackberry (FlightTrack), $5. Download it:Android, BlackBerry, iPhone/iPad.

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KILL TIME ON THE FLIGHT
The perfect nervous-passenger distraction, Flight Control HD for iPad gives folks something to focus on while surviving a long-haul flight: an air-traffic-control strategy game that lets you manage planes' flight patterns by dragging them along the touch screen. If only getting to your real-world destination were so easy. iPhone (Flight Control), $1; Android, BlackBerry (Flight Control), $3; iPad (Flight Control HD), $5. Download it: Android, BlackBerry,iPhone, iPad.

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