I thought once when I searched incorrectly that flightaware plugged in the first digits of the callsign with an * at the end and it searched for flights that matched the beginning of the callsign (eg: SWA17*).
Was this just a goof or is this something I can do? What I’d ultimately like to do is type in FIV5* which will bring up all aircraft that have filed with the callsign that starts with FIV5 (but will also display callsigns with more than 1 digit number, eg: FIV509).
Thanks,
Wildcard searching of flight numbers is not currently functional.
Enter “wildcard” into the search link at the top of this page and you will find many discussions on this topic.
David, I don’t think HPNP is referring to wildcard searches. If you enter a commercial flight number that doesn’t exist, you get somthing that is vaguely like a wildcard search.
For example, I tried to track SWA7572 and got this response
“FlightAware couldn’t find SWA7572 just yet.”
with a page full of similar possibilities (partial string search) to choose as a substitute flight.
This doesn’t work as a wildcard (SWA7***) or for a flight number that has a historic activity log. It also doesn’t work for ‘N’-aircraft.
Fwiw, HPNP, that type of partial string search is still working.