6 Best Ways to Track a Flight Online

FlightAware

FlightAware is one of the best online flight trackers because of how much detail it goes into.

You can, of course, find a specific flight by its flight number, or you can perform a general search using the origin and destination airport, which is useful if you want to see all the flights moving in and out of those locations or if you don't know the flight number.

The results can be filtered in a number of ways: flight type, status, airline, departure day and time, arrival day and time, alliance, and even the specific aircraft.

Once you've chosen a specific flight to follow, you'll have access to a ton of information:

• A progress bar indicating the time it will take to get from one gate to the next, including local times.
• The aircraft's flight history.
• The filed, actual, and estimated flight path on a map.
• A detailed report of where the plane has been during its flight, including coordinates.
• The average time it takes a taxi to reach the airport.

You can sign up a friend for notifications so that they'll get email alerts as the flight progresses. They'll be alerted when the flight plan is filed when the flight departs and arrives, and if the flight is delayed, canceled, or diverted.

The FlightAware airline tracker also details cancellations and flight delays. Flight cancellations are also portrayed visually on their MiseryMap.

This plane tracker has a really cool real-time, live flight tracker, too, for every plane in the air. Scroll around the map to see all the planes moving right now, and select any of them for more information.

FlightAware can be used from their desktop website or via the FlightAware mobile app.

Flightview

Flightview gives you the option of tracking flights by route or flight number. If you know the flight number, you can find its details easily, or you can search the airports and departure date to locate the flight number.

The information this site provides about your flight is straightforward and to the point. See the departure and arrival airport, time estimates, airport info (e.g., parking, delays, weather), and local services such as limos.

Flightview Live is a large map that details where the plane is right now. On the map is the path the plane will follow and basic details about the trip, such as scheduled and estimated departure and arrival times, the aircraft type, and the plane's altitude and speed.

A unique feature that makes tracking flights really easy, is that you can forward your itineraries to a special email address to automatically have the flight details loaded into your account, ready for you to track at any time. For this, you need to sign up for a free user account.

There's a mobile Flightview site you can access to use it from your phone, or you can install their mobile app.

FlightArrivals

FlightArrivals is the Swiss Army Knife of online flight trackers. The website isn't the greatest to look at, and there are probably more ads than there needs to be for one site, but there are lots of tools you can use to find and track flights.

This free flight tracker lets you search for both commercial and general flight information. Just enter the flight number and airline, or the tail number for general aviation flights, and then the date of departure to learn more about the flight.

You can also use this online flight tracker to find flights arriving at specific airports, for flights between two airports, airport delays, airport maps, route maps for selected airports, seat maps, model information for various aircraft, airline information, various flight-related statistics, and much more.

FlightStats

Another way to track flights from all around the world is with FlightStats. It's a super useful site that, in addition to flight information, offers customized map overlays, weather conditions of the airports, and airport delay maps. You can track specific flights in real-time or even pull up a random flight.

FlightStats displays flight information beautifully, but there are several features that are missing and only available if you pay for them. For example, some online flight trackers provide departure and arrival information, flight alerts, and historical searches for free. FlightStats includes those features, and an ad-free experience, only if you pay.

Flightradar24

FlightRadar24 is an utterly fascinating website that lets you watch live air traffic on a map. Select any of the aircraft icons for up-to-date information including the scheduled and actual departure and arrival times, aircraft type, and altitude.

Another way to find a specific flight instead of sifting through the map is to use the search box at the top of the site. Enter any flight number to instantly locate the plane on the map.

In the map settings are some options you can customize, such as to change the map style, adjust the brightness, change the aircraft icon size, toggle on or off types of traffic like gliders and ground vehicles, and more.

Several other features, flight details, and map options are available if you pay for Flightradar24, such as flight alerts, weather and other map labels, and full aircraft details.

Here's how they gather their data:

Flightradar24 combines data from several data sources including ADS-B, MLAT and radar data. The ADS-B, MLAT and radar data is aggregated together with schedule and flight status data from airlines and airports to create a unique flight tracking experience