FlightInfoStatus aircrafttype

Hi! I’ve encountered an issue with the aircrafttype field coming back from FlightInfoStatus: The data provided has some consistency issues, a few examples:

Tail number G-ZBKS is mostly shown as B789 (correct), but in about 10% of cases it shows as B788, B78X or even A35K.

I have the same issue with many other responses to this API request (e.g. G-YMMS has been shown as B772, A388, B788, 777, B77L, B789 over the past 4 months).

Is this something I can influence?

I’m not FlightAware staff, but have worked with the API extensively for the last several years; if aircraft type is important to your application, you’ll be well-served by overriding what’s provided by the API with your own fleet information based on the tail that’s provided. Tail numbers are generally pretty reliable.

When you see this inconsistency, it’s typically because the aircraft type that we have available is from a flight schedule or flight plan that was incorrect in the upstream data source. We are aware that there are some gaps here where the accuracy can be improved and plan to make further improvements.

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Thank you both for your answers!