API vs Website

We have an issue with a specific flight: MP8341. For some reason, there seems to be a different information on FlightAware’s website from what we are retrieving from its API.

I hereby attach a document with the full description. We would really appreciate you to look into this matter and provide a fix or explanation of the issue.
image

What information do you believe is different? You have not included any output from the API.

Be sure that you are looking at the same flight for the same day, since it is easy to mix up the days of recurring flights.

One additional consideration to keep in mind… You should try to use ICAO identifiers when possible in order to avoid confusion. For that Martinair flight, those should generally be MPH8341 rather than MP8341.

Hi, Bovineone. Thanks for your quick reply. I’m a developer working for GeodisSCO.

The main difference was the following:

Flightaware website shows data for flight MPH8341 AMS to NBO on 12/17/2020, but when searched via the api:

https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML3/FlightInfoStatus?ident=MPH8341

information with this specific origin and destination was not present (issue was present on December 22nd).

I have ran the request to the API again today, and now I do see the info. However, a week ago it wasn’t there and caused some issues to one of our systems.

Do you have any idea why this may have happened?

Thanks!

Martinair is a cargo operator, which in general will have lower tracking accuracy as cargo operators do not generally have the need/desire to transmit their FLIFO data to us through the same systems that passenger airlines do. Additionally, that flight is operating outside of our primary coverage areas, so we are unable to receive full ATC data for that flight. Furthermore, portions of that flight operated outside of our positional coverage areas, which means that some portions of the flight we were estimating/projecting its current position based on last known information.

That specific flight appears to have performed a diversion from its originally scheduled destination (FAOR) to a different destination (HKJK), however we did not receive that flightplan change notification through any of our public data sources. We were instead only able to synthetically determine it had diverted after detecting its arrival at HKJK. Because of that, FlightXML would likely have continued to indicate it was travelling to its original destination until its arrival at its destination.

When diversions are detected to have occurred, FlightXML will typically return two (or perhaps more) flight records for the same faFlightID with one record containing the original destination and the other record containing the new destination. Your application logic may or may not have been prepared to encounter multiple records for the same flight.

Although we do have published flight schedules for that Martinair flight, that is slightly unusual since it is a cargo operator and typically only passenger airlines publish flight schedules to us in that manner. It’s not entirely clear whether that Martinair flight was always intended to make an intermediate stop at HKJK before landing at FAOR (that seems to be a common occurrence with that particular flight’s history), so it’s possible that their published flight schedule is simply inaccurate.

1 Like

Oh, I see. Thank you very much for your time and thorough explanation! You were very helpful :slight_smile:

Another possible explanation for the unexpected intermediate stop at HKJK is due to the fuel considerations for a flight of that length. Many operators have been substituting different aircraft type at the last moment to smaller aircraft due to lower utilization loads, which has meant that they are unable to make their original destinations without an intermediate fuel stop. These last moment aircraft/route changes are not reflected in the speculative flight schedules that are published to us weeks/months in advance.

Do these cargo suppliers provide the flight information on a consistent schedule or is it random when they post it? We are looking to make multiple calls to try and get this detail, but not sure if we should do it multiple times a day or just once a day.

Can someone answer my question?

This will largely depend on the filing habits of the carrier and flight operating area relative to our primary coverage area as noted above. In the case of last moment changes it is possible that a flight may not appear until aircraft movement is detected shortly before or at the time of departure.

I appreciate the confirmation. Thanks!