Live Flight Tracking

Why aren't you using standard center codes for regions? For instance ZAU - for Chicago Center (Aurora, IL) when I am looking up preferred routes. I see you are using ZCH.

Where are they listed so I know what to type?

What a wonderful site! Thanks for all the hard work.

Some airplanes also are missing tracklog history after a period of a few days. What is the criteria for it being available if I manually append /tracklog to the tail number link?

Thanks again.

We weren't using the standard center codes because we were don't intend for all airports covered by a center or approach facility to be considered the metro area of the city named. For example, ZHU will only cover the metro Houston airports even though ZHU controls airspace for hundreds of miles in various directions.

Originally, the cities implemented for FlightAware's metro area searches were Los Angeles & New York and perhaps out of habit, ZNY & ZLA were selected as the terminal area codes, which also set the precedent that we use Z followed by city initials. As you observed, the consistency went downhill and it led to more confusion.

We've switched to the proper center codes (such as ZAU for Chicago) now, but may later choose our own naming system that does not begin with Z if there is confusion about what should be covered or if we decide to launch tracking services that are based on ATC facilities.

We continue to support the aliases NYC, WAS, and CHI for New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago, respectively.



They are listed here.



Of course, all this stuff is in development and we have some pretty cool plans for both the short term and near term future. Additionally, you've clearly noticed that FlightAware doesn't currently offer to show you the tracklog except when the flight is en route. That said, as it stands now, track logs should be available (via adding /tracklog to the URL) for 48-72 hours after the last flight for that identification arrived. If you've been seeing flights thare landed <48 hours ago with missing track data, I'd be interested in hearing about detailed specifics of the incident. Of course, we still save the data indefinitely, it's just a matter of how far back the map server is willing to look back while it tries to produce a real-time for you.

Thanks for your insightful feedback.

I notice that ZFW is listed as the Terminal Area code for Dallas. But where do we go from there? ZFW is not accepted as View Airport Activity code, nor was ZNY accepted for New York.

How do we use this code in an inquiry of any type?

Right now, it's only usable for finding a flight number or finding an IFR route.

OK, I see that. It's a neat inquiry! But it's a hidden goodie, just as the Lifeguard flight section is. Is there a chance you could show some more links on the FlightAware entry page ( http://www.flightware.com )? Maybe a Site Map page would suffice.

Does Flight Finder have a wild-card entry? I checked ZFW to ZNY, which works fine, but ZFW to [blank = anywhere] is invalid. Is there a way to display Origin only or Destination only? Those pages would be great to use when listening to ATC radio.

Yeah, we'll have to work on making it more accessible. Right now, to get to the Lifeguard page you need to click on "live flight tracking" and to get to the IFR Route finder, you have to click on "analysis." That said, the flight finder is linked on every page that has the tracking toolbar; it's listed as, "Don't Know The Flight #?"



As it is, FlightAware doesn't support that yet. I don't know if it'd be more appropriate to have that work as an airport page, flight finder, or perhaps both.

Both. Go ALL the way!!

Too logical!