flight-ics

name	flight-ics
description	Generate an .ics calendar file for flights that imports cleanly into Fantastical (or any calendar). Use when the user wants flight legs added to their calendar, an ics/ical file for a flight, or a booking put on Fantastical.
argument-hint	[trip-note-path | flight details]

Flight Calendar (.ics) Generator

Turn flight legs into an .ics file the user can double-click to import into Fantastical. Fantastical (Flexibits) has no remote MCP URL / stdio command to register with claude mcp add — its connector is Claude Desktop-only — so an .ics import is the reliable path from Claude Code.

Input

Flight details from any source:

• A trip note path (frontmatter type: trip-notes) — pull legs from its ### Flights section
• A pasted confirmation, or details given inline in the conversation

Extract per leg: origin city + IATA code, destination city + IATA code, airline name + flight number, confirmation code, date, departure/arrival times, duration, and baggage. Omit anything absent (no placeholders).

Conventions

One VEVENT per leg. Match this exactly:

• SUMMARY (title): [ORIGIN] to [DEST] ✈️ Flight [AIRLINE_CODE] [NUMBER] ([Airline Full Name])
  • e.g. LGB to SJC ✈️ Flight WN 2712 (Southwest) — airport codes only in the title
• LOCATION: full street address of the departing airport (look it up if not known)
• DESCRIPTION (notes): route line, blank line, then one detail per line:

  [Origin City] ([ORIGIN]) to [Destination City] ([DEST])
  
  Confirmation Code [CODE]
  Flight [AIRLINE_CODE] [NUMBER] ([Airline Full Name])
  [Full Day Name], [Month] [Date], [DepTime] to [ArrTime]
  Duration: [X]h [Y]m
  [Baggage line, e.g. "1 carryon + 1 personal item (Basic fare)"]
  

• Times: 12-hour with AM/PM in the notes; full day names.
• Timezone: set DTSTART/DTEND with TZID for the departing airport's zone, and include a matching VTIMEZONE block. Arrival time is in the destination's local zone — for a single-leg VEVENT, use the departing zone for both start/end and let the notes carry the true arrival time (calendars show wall-clock at the departure location, which is what travelers expect for a same-region hop). For legs crossing timezones, set DTEND in the arrival zone with its own VTIMEZONE.

ICS escaping (easy to get wrong)

In TEXT values (SUMMARY, LOCATION, DESCRIPTION):

• Escape commas as \, and semicolons as \;
• Line breaks in DESCRIPTION are literal \n
• The ✈️ emoji is fine inline (UTF-8)

Template

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Claude Code//Trip Flights//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:19700308T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:19701101T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:[unique-slug]@[user]
DTSTAMP:[YYYYMMDDT000000Z]
SUMMARY:LGB to SJC ✈️ Flight WN 2712 (Southwest)
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260912T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260912T124000
LOCATION:Long Beach Airport (LGB)\, 4100 Donald Douglas Dr\, Long Beach\, CA 90808
DESCRIPTION:Long Beach (LGB) to San Jose (SJC)\n\nConfirmation Code BY35EU\nFlight WN 2712 (Southwest)\nSaturday\, September 12\, 11:30AM to 12:40PM\nDuration: 1h 10m\n1 carryon + 1 personal item (Basic fare)
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

Include one VTIMEZONE per distinct zone used; add a VEVENT per leg. For zones other than America/Los_Angeles, swap TZID, offsets, and the DST RRULEs to match (US zones share the 2nd-Sunday-March / 1st-Sunday-November rule; other regions differ).

Output

• Write to ~/Downloads/[Trip Name] Flights.ics (spaces are fine).
• Tell the user they can double-click it, or run ! open ~/Downloads/"...ics" to send it straight to Fantastical.
• If a trip note was the source, do not modify the note — this skill only produces the .ics.

Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to escape commas in dates/addresses (September 12 → September\, 12) — breaks parsing or truncates the field.
• Using real newlines instead of \n inside DESCRIPTION.
• Omitting VTIMEZONE, which makes calendars guess the zone and shift times.
• Putting the full airport name in the title — use the IATA code there; the full address goes in LOCATION.
• Adding seat numbers when the airline assigns them at check-in (leave them out unless known).