Flights not found despite being in schedule

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Hello, we are using FlightXML3. The following is a protypical query for a problem that we are having. Although the flight is in the schedule with the same departure epoch, it is not found. Is there something I am doing wrong?
Kind regards,
Robin

Request
{
“ident”: “ANZ80@1527588600”
}
Response
{
“error”: “flight not found”
}

— schedule
request
{
“start_date”: “1527552000”,
“end_date”: “1527638400”,
“origin”: “HKG”,
“destination”: “AKL”,
“airline”: “ANZ”,
“howMany”: 150,
“offset”: 0
}
response
{
“AirlineFlightSchedulesResult”: {
“next_offset”: -1,
“flights”: [
{
“ident”: “ANZ80”,
“actual_ident”: “”,
“departuretime”: 1527588600,
“arrivaltime”: 1527627300,
“origin”: “VHHH”,
“destination”: “NZAA”,
“aircrafttype”: “B772”,
“meal_service”: “Business: Dinner, Breakfast / Economy: Dinner, Breakfast”,
“seats_cabin_first”: 0,
“seats_cabin_business”: 26,
“seats_cabin_coach”: 278
},
{
“ident”: “THA4863”,
“actual_ident”: “ANZ80”,
“departuretime”: 1527588600,
“arrivaltime”: 1527627300,
“origin”: “VHHH”,
“destination”: “NZAA”,
“aircrafttype”: “B772”,
“meal_service”: “”,
“seats_cabin_first”: 0,
“seats_cabin_business”: 26,
“seats_cabin_coach”: 278
},
{
“ident”: “ANZ4994”,
“fa_ident”: “CPA113-1527398756-airline-0358:1”,
“actual_ident”: “CPA113”,
“departuretime”: 1527599100,
“arrivaltime”: 1527638100,
“origin”: “VHHH”,
“destination”: “NZAA”,
“aircrafttype”: “A359”,
“meal_service”: “Business: Breakfast, Dinner / Economy: Breakfast, Dinner”,
“seats_cabin_first”: 0,
“seats_cabin_business”: 38,
“seats_cabin_coach”: 242
},
{
“ident”: “THY8722”,
“actual_ident”: “ANZ80”,
“departuretime”: 1527588600,
“arrivaltime”: 1527627300,
“origin”: “VHHH”,
“destination”: “NZAA”,
“aircrafttype”: “B772”,
“meal_service”: “Business: Dinner, Breakfast / Economy: Dinner, Breakfast”,
“seats_cabin_first”: 0,
“seats_cabin_business”: 26,
“seats_cabin_coach”: 278
},
{
“ident”: “CPA7401”,
“actual_ident”: “ANZ80”,
“departuretime”: 1527588600,
“arrivaltime”: 1527627300,
“origin”: “VHHH”,
“destination”: “NZAA”,
“aircrafttype”: “B772”,
“meal_service”: “Business: Breakfast, Dinner / Economy: Breakfast, Dinner”,
“seats_cabin_first”: 0,
“seats_cabin_business”: 26,
“seats_cabin_coach”: 278
},
{
“ident”: “DLH7158”,
“actual_ident”: “ANZ80”,
“departuretime”: 1527588600,
“arrivaltime”: 1527627300,
“origin”: “VHHH”,
“destination”: “NZAA”,
“aircrafttype”: “B772”,
“meal_service”: “Business: Dinner, Breakfast / Economy: Dinner, Breakfast”,
“seats_cabin_first”: 0,
“seats_cabin_business”: 26,
“seats_cabin_coach”: 278
}
]
}
}

2

Schedules are published months/weeks in advance and do not always correspond precisely with how the airline may operate the flight.

If you use FlightInfoStatus with just “ANZ80” (not specifying a single timestamp) and look at the results, you will find that today’s flight differs by about 2 hours. Unfortunately, the “ident@epoch” pattern will only find flights when they match by a couple minutes difference or less. You cannot assume that there will always be a precise match between the schedule and how the flight is ultimately operated.

{"faFlightID":"ANZ80-1527398762-airline-0062:1","ident":"ANZ80","aircrafttype":"B772","filed_ete":"10:27:00","filed_time":1527606875,"filed_departuretime":1527582000,"filed_airspeed_kts":482,"filed_airspeed_mach":"","filed_altitude":330,"route":"OCEAN V4 NOMAN/M082F330 A461 AVMUP W16 MIA B462 BIDOR/M083F350 B462 BIK/M083F370 G459 WP B473 CS Y177 SWIFT Z17 HM A346 LEEAM/M082F370 A346 PADDY/M083F390 A346 SALAG DCT AA","actualdeparturetime":1527585780,"estimatedarrivaltime":1527623401,"actualarrivaltime":0,"diverted":"","origin":"VHHH","destination":"NZAA","originName":"Hong Kong Int'l","originCity":"Hong Kong","destinationName":"Auckland","destinationCity":"Auckland"}

(Note that the above output was from FlightXML2 FlightInfoEx, but the same data is available through FlightXML3 FlightInfoStatus)

3

thanks for your quick answer. I didn’t understand: is the epoch time given at the ident for the scheduled time or actual timeß Is there any way to reliably address specific flights? What does just “ANZ80” do exactly? Is this the next upcoming flight?

4

The “ident@epoch” syntax will find a flight that matches either the filed_departuretime or actual_departuretime within the same minute as the epoch timestamp you specify.

Searching for “ANZ80” returns all recent flights within ~2 days in the future to ~2 weeks in the past, ordered from future to past.

5

Thanks for the quick response. How much does Flightaware charge for the “ANZ80” type of query? Is it still a single call if I don’t follow any offsets?

6

Up to 15 records in a response is still considered a single query.