Hello,
could it be the case that FlightXML2 not always reports pure cargo flights by their regular ICAO flight number?
Example: DLH8221 is a cargo flight from MEX to DFW and then to FRA. When we search it with the Search API using “-idents DLH8221”,
we get nothing. When we use the tail number, “-idents GEC8221”, we get full information.
But: When we search this flight on your web frontend using the ICAO code LH8221, we get full information.
Why is this the case?
And do you offer an API that can deliver the tail number for a flight number?
Wolfgang
There is nothing special about cargo flights that would prevent them from being returned by the “Search” function, or any other FlightXML function.
That flight seems to actually be operating as the “GEC” code and not the “DLH” code.
Note that GEC is actually one of the official ICAO codes that Lufthansa has been assigned, for use as their cargo flights. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Cargo
Notice also that the IATA code “LH” is the mapping for both their commercial passenger (DLH) and their cargo (GEC) flights, so this is an example of how we cannot always automatically translate an IATA code to the ICAO code with complete confidence.
When you track LH8221 on our website, you get redirected to the page flightaware.com/live/flight/DLH8221 which shows a last flight in Oct 2013 (and only a partial track). Those particular flights appear to just be a data anomaly, since they were probably supposed to also have been actually identified as GEC flights.
