Flight Schedules Update Frequency

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Hi,

I’m trying to figure out the update frequency for schedule information from the AirlineFlightSchedules query. I’ve been polling for schedule records a couple times a day and noticed that schedules seem to be added throughout the day. My understanding is the airlines lock in their schedules months in advance. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

2

Hi,
You should not see different schedules everyday. For sure we do not update and add schedules daily. You are right, they don’t change for months or let’s say weeks.
I am happy to look into any example requests you may have, that gave you different results throughout the day.
I have to add that changing any of the parameters/filters may lead to different results, so we have to make sure we are looking at similar requests here.

3

Thanks for the feedback. We will try to get some specific examples of new schedules added…

Additionally, we seem to not see some flight schedules from the smaller codeshare flights such a as ExpressJet and SkyWest. If we look up a schedule based on an actual arrival, sometimes there are no published schedules. Can you let us know why and if there is a better way to get that info?

For instance we received an arrival event for SKW2961 on Jan. 29 and can see the flight on the website at:https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SKW2961/history/20160115/1955Z/YUM/KPHX

Though when we execute a query from 28 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT to 30 Jan 2016 23:59:00 GMT against the airline schedule api we get no schedules for this flight:

flightxml.flightaware.com/json/F … ghtno=2961

Is it expected that no schedules will exist for certain carriers and flights?

Thanks!

4

AirlineFlightSchedules was not really intended to be used for schedules that were weeks in the past. That is why some small codeshares might be missing right now.
Good news is that improvements are under way and soon you should be able to see that SKW2961 schedule.

5

I just tested for that SKW2961 schedule on Jan29 and I do get the right results, for both routes that are in between my startDate and endDate.

https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML2/AirlineFlightSchedules?startDate=1453978800&endDate=1453986000&airline=SKW&flightno=2961


{"AirlineFlightSchedulesResult":{"next_offset":-1,"data":{"ident":"AAL2961","actual_ident":"SKW2961","departuretime":1453985700,"arrivaltime":1453989120,"origin":"YUM","destination":"KPHX","aircrafttype":"","meal_service":"","seats_cabin_first":0,"seats_cabin_business":0,"seats_cabin_coach":50},{"ident":"AAL2961","actual_ident":"SKW2961","departuretime":1454004000,"arrivaltime":1454007660,"origin":"KPHX","destination":"YUM","aircrafttype":"","meal_service":"","seats_cabin_first":0,"seats_cabin_business":0,"seats_cabin_coach":50}]}}

All past schedules, including schedules for codeshares should be available.