Perhaps you want to know what your flight status is so you can keep track of any possible delays or changes that could affect your travel plans—or worse, that would require you to rebook your flight. Or maybe you want to double-check the anticipated arrival time of a friend or loved one’s flight before heading to the airport to pick them up. Maybe you’re curious where the plane you’ll soon be boarding is flying from. Or perhaps you saw a plane overhead and are wondering where it’s headed. There are myriad reasons why you might want to check the status of a flight.
Luckily, there are tools to help you do that, and some of them will give you more information than you can get from the airline you are flying with—not least because they are tracking flights from all the airlines, not just one. These apps and websites share information on when your flight is expected to depart and land, and some can also give you a deep dive, pulling information like previous flights on that aircraft and what the weather looks like at the connecting airports. Here are a few flight tracking tools we recommend.
Google your flight number
One of the easiest and fastest ways to check whether or not a flight is still slated to depart or arrive on time is to Google it. All you need to do is search for “[flight number] status” in the search bar (for example, “AA 2488 status”) and hit enter. Google then aggregates various flight-tracking websites and displays the estimated arrival and departure times at the top of the page. Google will also display the most up-to-date terminal and gate information.
Download the airline’s app
You should also always have your airlines’ apps downloaded so that you can get updates directly from the source. That way you can cross-reference the information the airline is providing you with data you are obtaining from other sources. While they certainly aren’t perfect, the airlines are getting better about sending out push notifications and updates whenever there are changes to the schedule, including when the departure time or gate changes. (You will need to allow for those push notifications in your settings, so if it’s something you want to see pop up, make sure you have them enabled on your phone and to update those settings whenever your phone updates.) If things are starting to unravel, the airline app is also a good place to start to see what your other options might be for alternative flights or rebooking.
Use a flight tracking service
FlightRadar 24
If you’re looking to get the complete picture of where a plane is on its journey—including real-time position—FlightRadar24 is a helpful resource that comes in the form of both a website and a free app.
You can really get into the weeds and look at data like all the scheduled arrivals and departures at a specific airport, including what type of plane it is and who it’s registered to (both commercial carriers and private aircraft owners). It’s also possible to see a plane’s flight records and everywhere it’s previously flown—including that day or over its lifetime, depending on how you set the search parameters.
If you’ve seen a plane overhead and are wondering where it’s going, FlightRadar24 can help there, too. It can pull all the planes flying within your vicinity. If there are multiple planes flying within your vicinity, it’ll share all of them, which makes it more challenging to figure out which one you’re looking at exactly, but it can help give you an idea.
Those who opt for the Premium service (which ranges from $10 to $500 per year, depending on the plan) can also learn more about the exact type of aircraft, how fast it’s going, and its altitude.
FlightAware
Like FlightRadar24, FlightAware offers flight tracking data for any commercial flight worldwide with the help of a network of servers that capture a plane’s position in real time.
Whether you’re a frequent flier or an aviation geek, there are many ways to use the free service (available in both app and website form). If you have the flight number, FlightAware can provide information about expected departure and arrival times. If you don’t have the flight number, the Flight Finder option can help locate the flight number (though you do need to know the aircraft’s origin and destination airport). FlightAware also offers an interactive MiseryMap, which can show you what airports are currently experiencing problems (and more specifically, what routes are seeing delays and cancellations that day).
FlightAware is available as a free app or website, with the possibility of searching for five flights per month. After that, there are a handful of premium plans, which range from $40 to $130 per month, depending on how deep of a dive you want to do, such as tracking more flights or following a specific plane over time.
FlightStats
FlightStats is an easy-to-use online tool powered by Cirium, an aviation analytics company. It allows you to simply enter the flight number in question and it will provide you with all of the information about the flight, including whether or not it’s scheduled to depart on time. Another handy tool is the airport tracker, which allows you to search any airport and find out whether flights are departing on time or experiencing delays. Beyond the free flight tracking and airport delays information that is available to anyone, you can also opt for a “standard account,” which for $3 per month also includes flight alerts, or for $25 per month, a professional account will provide historical flight and airport data. Parent company Cirium releases regular on-time reports for both airlines and airports, providing an easy way to get a sense of which airlines and hubs are performing above the rest.
How flight tracking apps and websites work
Flight tracking apps and websites track flights in real time, all over the world. They’re used to check the status of a flight, see if an inbound aircraft has any anticipated delays, observe the weather radar throughout the flight path, view the exact route a plane is taking, and determine what type of aircraft it is.
Typically, they gain access through satellites to information about where planes are at any given time (which is possible because planes are constantly sharing their position with other aircraft and air traffic controllers for safety reasons).
Beyond letting you know if your flight will be delayed, flight trackers can help travelers get ahead of potential log jams, especially during busy travel periods (like the holiday season) or any time inclement weather threatens to derail your plans. Knowing ahead of time that your flight will be significantly delayed allows you to start proactively researching alternative flights and get yourself rebooked before everyone else on your flight starts flooding the help desks and customer service lines.
This story was originally published in April 2023 and was updated on May 14, 2024, to include current information.
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