Arrival Confirmation for UAE304 5th July

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Hi,

I was tracking today’s flight UAE304, from Dubai (DXB) to Shanghai (PVG), via FlightXML3 → FlightInfoStatus method, and also following it from your site and something really strange happened.
From your site I swear I saw another message different than “ESTIMATED ARRIVAL”, something like “ARRIVED 5 minutes ago” , with the arrival datetime filled. Seconds later the page is refreshed and than ESTIMATED ARRIVAL is shown in a grey color. My question is why this happened? It is also shown (not italicized ) arrival datetimes (landing) 22:20 CTS.

Querying your API i get the actual arrival time equal to actual departure time, and a status message: result_unknown.
In your site you appear to have the correct landing time, but from your api result I can’t obtain that information:

              {
                "ident": "UAE304",
                "faFlightID": "UAE304-1562132100-schedule-0000",
                "airline": "UAE",
                "airline_iata": "EK",
                "flightnumber": "304",
                "tailnumber": "A6-EUA",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "OMDB",
                    "city": "Dubai",
                    "alternate_ident": "DXB",
                    "airport_name": "Dubai Int'l"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "ZSPD",
                    "city": "Shanghai",
                    "alternate_ident": "PVG",
                    "airport_name": "Shanghai Pudong Int'l"
                },
                "filed_ete": 27780,
                "filed_airspeed_kts": 399,
                "distance_filed": 4010,
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1562304900,
                    "tz": "+04",
                    "dow": "Friday",
                    "time": "09:35",
                    "date": "07/05/2019",
                    "localtime": 1562319300
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1562307420,
                    "tz": "+04",
                    "dow": "Friday",
                    "time": "10:17",
                    "date": "07/05/2019",
                    "localtime": 1562321820
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1562307471,
                    "tz": "+04",
                    "dow": "Friday",
                    "time": "10:17",
                    "date": "07/05/2019",
                    "localtime": 1562321871
                },
                "departure_delay": 1320,
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1562332680,
                    "tz": "CST",
                    "dow": "Friday",
                    "time": "21:18",
                    "date": "07/05/2019",
                    "localtime": 1562361480
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1562335620,
                    "tz": "CST",
                    "dow": "Friday",
                    "time": "22:07",
                    "date": "07/05/2019",
                    "localtime": 1562364420
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1562307471,
                    "tz": "CST",
                    "dow": "Friday",
                    "time": "14:17",
                    "date": "07/05/2019",
                    "localtime": 1562336271
                },
                "arrival_delay": 60,
                "status": "result unknown",
                "progress_percent": 100,
                "aircrafttype": "A388",
                "full_aircrafttype": "A388",
                "adhoc": false
            }

Please also check attached printscreen.
I want at least obtain the correct landing time appearing in your site, but I’m not getting those values.

Screenshot%20from%202019-07-05%2015-40-05
Screenshot%20from%202019-07-05%2015-40-05944×928 310 KB

Thanks in advance.

2

Hello,

Can anyone assist?

Thanks.

3

The site it showing an estimated arrival. The time value is the same as the estimated arrival shown in FlightXML.

It looks like a gate arrival was confirmed without a runway arrival confirmation. The page may use this information in its display while FlightXML doesn’t consider it due to the optional nature of ex_data requests.

4

Hi @dogrock,

Where is the value of 22:20 CTS arrival date in flight xml, like you said the values were the same?
Estimated is 22:07 CTS, and arrival is way diffente 14:17 CTS. None of these values equal 22:20 CTS :\

Thanks.

5

Hello again,

Correct me if I’m wrong.
“Result unknown” nowadays in your API status result equals to your “Estimated Arrival” in your page, right?
In these cases, actual_departure_time.epoch is the same as actual_arrival_time.epoch, meaning that I should not register the actual arrival time with this value. So, in these cases, the most valid record we have to register actual_arrival_time is in fact the estimated_arrival_time.epoch, right?

Thanks.

6

Yes, that is just a wording/usability improvement in how our website displays flights. “Estimated arrival” is the same meaning as “Result unknown”

7

Ok, so in cases like this one, the most valid record we have to register actual_arrival_time is in fact the estimated_arrival_time.epoch, right? And is it normally the right/correct one, right?

8

You would still compare whether actual_departure_time.epoch is the same as actual_arrival_time.epoch (and is non-zero) to check for the “Estimate arrival” (aka “Result unknown”) condition.

If you need to display a timestamp of the probable arrival time, you could either use the estimated_arrival_time, or alternatively use the GetFlightTrack function to get the timestamp of the last position from the flight log.

9

@bovineone thanks for the support.