Some flights not returned / wrong data

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

I’m using FlightXML for a new app that i’m building.
Now I am trying to get the flights that are departing from a specific airport to a other airport within a date/timestamp.
This does work, except that FlightXML does not return all the flights and most of the times wrong departure times.

For example, when I search on SkyScanner for today I get allot of flights that are not being returned or have wrong departure times:
http://s24.postimg.org/pq7xj1t6t/Screen_Shot_2016_04_05_at_14_08_26.png

And when I use the same query
flightxml.flightaware.com/json/F … 5&offset=0

It returns not all airliners/flights that are departing, just 2 of them. That is strange, because when I look on the map that you cover, The Netherlands and London are covered.


{"AirlineFlightSchedulesResult":{"next_offset":-1,"data":{"ident":"EZY7402","actual_ident":"","departuretime":1459842900,"arrivaltime":1459846500,"origin":"EHAM","destination":"EGMC","aircrafttype":"A319","meal_service":"","seats_cabin_first":0,"seats_cabin_business":0,"seats_cabin_coach":156},{"ident":"EZY7406","actual_ident":"","departuretime":1459885800,"arrivaltime":1459889400,"origin":"EHAM","destination":"EGMC","aircrafttype":"A319","meal_service":"","seats_cabin_first":0,"seats_cabin_business":0,"seats_cabin_coach":156}]}}

So sometimes, when I search for a flight it does not show up. When they do show-up then they have the wrong departure times, sometimes 30 minutes and other times 2 hours. When I search the flight on Google it shows the correct times.

How can I fix this?

2

Those timestamps look fine to me, they match what Google says.



$ TZ='Europe/Amsterdam' date -d '@1459842900'
Tue Apr  5 09:55:00 CEST 2016
$ TZ='Europe/London' date -d '@1459846500'
Tue Apr  5 09:55:00 BST 2016

$ TZ='Europe/Amsterdam' date -d '@1459885800'
Tue Apr  5 21:50:00 CEST 2016
$ TZ='Europe/London' date -d '@1459889400'
Tue Apr  5 21:50:00 BST 2016
3

Thank you for input.

But those do not match the Flights with that specific FlightNumber, for example:

I search on FlightRadar for a flight that is about to departure, in this case UAL959. It’s about to departure from London.
http://s8.postimg.org/lg3o315l1/Screen_Shot_2016_04_05_at_16_05_25.png

Then I will put the flightnumber in FlightXML.
flightxml.flightaware.com/json/F … 5&offset=0


{"AirlineFlightSchedulesResult":{"next_offset":-1,"data":{"ident":"AUA7853","actual_ident":"UAL959","departuretime":1459865400,"arrivaltime":1459898100,"origin":"EGLL","destination":"KORD","aircrafttype":"B763","meal_service":"Eerste klas: Diner / Business: Diner / Economy: Diner","seats_cabin_first":6,"seats_cabin_business":26,"seats_cabin_coach":151},{"ident":"ACA5365","actual_ident":"UAL959","departuretime":1459865400,"arrivaltime":1459898100,"origin":"EGLL","destination":"KORD","aircrafttype":"B763","meal_service":"","seats_cabin_first":6,"seats_cabin_business":26,"seats_cabin_coach":151},{"ident":"DLH9356","actual_ident":"UAL959","departuretime":1459865400,"arrivaltime":1459898100,"origin":"EGLL","destination":"KORD","aircrafttype":"B763","meal_service":"Eerste klas: Diner / Business: Diner / Economy: Diner","seats_cabin_first":6,"seats_cabin_business":26,"seats_cabin_coach":151},{"ident":"BEL9089","actual_ident":"UAL959","departuretime":1459865400,"arrivaltime":1459898100,"origin":"EGLL","destination":"KORD","aircrafttype":"B763","meal_service":"","seats_cabin_first":6,"seats_cabin_business":26,"seats_cabin_coach":151},{"ident":"UAL959","actual_ident":"","departuretime":1459865400,"arrivaltime":1459898100,"origin":"EGLL","destination":"KORD","aircrafttype":"B763","meal_service":"Eerste klas: Diner / Business: Diner / Economy: Diner","seats_cabin_first":6,"seats_cabin_business":26,"seats_cabin_coach":151}]}}

When I convert those epoch times I get the following result, Tue, 05 Apr 2016 14:10:00 GMT. Then I Google the flightnumber it does not match the data I get back from FlightXML:
http://s23.postimg.org/wkix1kvqj/Screen_Shot_2016_04_05_at_16_14_16.png

So those are the wrong departure times, and those are crucial for the app. Also some flights are actually not showing up in the FlightXML feed.

4

Google and FR24 are showing local time, not UTC/GMT. London is currently UTC+1. The epoch timestamp is correct:



$ TZ='Europe/London' date -d '@1459865400'
Tue Apr  5 15:10:00 BST 2016
5

Aaah I see, I was filtering out flights that have no Actual_ident.
Why are some actual_idents missing for some flights that I query with FlightSchedule?

6

Only flights that are operating as a codeshare of another will have an actual_ident. If there is no actual_ident, then the flight is actually just itself.