I went through with FlighXML queries on random flights (to/from Moscow’s DME airport) in order to check Flightaware’s data accuracy. Now with gathered background I could use some help to clarify certain items that are related to incoming flight times, featured/lacking airlines etc.
I used Flightinfo method for our feed.
1 Lacking airlines. I’ve noticed that some airlines are lacking on FlightXML (they are also unavailable on the website’s timetable). Just some of them to name: Red Wings (RWZ), KomiAviaTrans (KMA) and Izhavia (IZA). In the meantime RWZ’s fleet can still be traced on the map! Also notable is that these airlines have modern fleet (except IZA) and they fly to locations most of which are covered with ADS-B.
Also FIA airline is named Four Island Air whereas its true name is Fly One.
3 Confusing feed results. Flights TUA702, FIA121, DRU515, LLM9743, LLM119 have equal actual departure and arrival times: Pasteboard - Uploaded Image
4 Incomplete data. Some flights are missing in the output. You can see on PGT6776 case below that the flight were to arrive on 21st of August but it’s missing on xml. There are many other of same type.
5 Additionally I can pinpoint numerous cases where Flightinfo returns only feasible ETA times which improve within duration and in the same time there’s no ATD/ATA feed. I reckon that the quality of data relies on such items as fleet or route/location capabilities, but I’d like to understand how in these cases the mechanic of ETA reevaluation works.
Instances where (actualarrivaltime == actualdeparturetime) indicates that FlightAware did not receive enough data to confirm arrival of the flight. These flights are depicted on our website as “result unknown” or “estimated arrival” since we don’t know what time to show for the arrival. See https://flightaware.com/commercial/flightxml/v3/faq.rvt#departureArrivalSame
Most of the other issues you have raised are due to poor data availability from those airlines and the non-participation of the Russian ANSP in providing public data to us. Some of the larger airlines you mentioned do participate in data exchange of flight schedules through certain airline schedule providers that we use, however the lack of sufficient data is the fundamental limitation that causes poor tracking experiences. I will investigate some of the examples you provided and see if we can improve any of them, but changes will likely not be immediate.
I’ve made updates to our airline database for Red Wings (RWZ) and KomiAviaTrans (KMA). These changes might start to make some slight improvements over the next few days. You can let me know in a week if there appears to be any difference.
FIA used to be assigned to the bankrupt Four Island Air, so I’ve just updated it to refer to Fly One.
Izhavia (IZA) appears to already exist in our airline database and seems fine. Although it looks like we are receiving schedule information for them, we don’t receive any aircraft events nor can we get positions because their aircraft are not ADS-B equipped.
Although we receive schedule information for many PGT flights, we don’t have the details for PGT6776 (nor any PGT flight from LTFG to UUDD) in advance, so those flights are detected by us as “position-only” flights and are much lower quality as a result.
Most of the other issues you have raised are due to poor data availability from those airlines and the non-participation of the Russian ANSP in providing public data to us.
Are FAA’s the only source that Flightaware uses to powerup its schedule database?
We could open DME timetable for you providing this improves tracing.
