Have you ever wanted to track a flight’s status to know exactly when it will arrive, and what might be causing it to be delayed?
Whatever your motive to want to track this information, as a friend’s ride home from the airport, or just a nosy observer here are several websites that can help you out.
The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center provides up to the minute status updates from major airports throughout the US. Hovering your mouse over any of the colored dots on the map will provide you with information on that airport’s general departure/arrival delays. The top 40 or so airports in the country are shown by default, but the drop-down boxes and search field on top of the page allow you to view other airports as well.
What this site won’t provide is detailed flight statuses, just general airport conditions.
For detailed flight statuses, keep reading…
Similar to the FAA’s airport status site, Flightaware.com will show you live airport information, in addition to flight data, weather maps, flight planning, and navigation charts, aviation news and photos.
You can search for statuses by flight number, flight operator (Delta, Southwest, etc), airport code (or location), or aircraft type.
Searching by aircraft type, or operator will bring up a world map with all the flights on that particular aircraft type. Zoom in, and you’ll be able to click on a plane icon to see additional detail on that flight.
Flight information such as its origin/destination, flight duration and progress, status, distance traveled/remaining, and more are available for thousands of flights at a time.
The website also has free mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone.
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