FlightXML 3 - Missing flights in AirportBoards

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Hello,

I’m using XML3 AirportBoards for a long time without any problem, but in the last weeks I have realized that number of flights returned is much lower than usual, when doing request for LEMG airport.

Comparing with the information provided by the airport, I’m missing a lot of flights, not returned in AirportBoards.

As an example, for a query done today 24th November, I’m missing following flights: FR5676, VY3141, SN3735, FR2531 or IB8274.

Is there any problem with AirportBoards? We are using it in a commercial solution, so it is quite important to get all flights information as we got always.

Regards

2

We are not aware of any current problems with that method.

Checking that method right now returns the FR5676 flight with faFlightID RYR5676-1606056660-schedule-0222, and the SN3735 with BEL3735-1606053660-schedule-0304, and the RYR2531 with RYR2531-1606058820-schedule-0391, and the IB8274 with ANE8274-1606057620-schedule-0526. I don’t see the VY3141 (VLG3141-1606052760-schedule-0066:0) returned at the moment, but it might have been aged out already.

https://flightxml.flightaware.com/json/FlightXML3/AirportBoards?airport_code=LEMG

Be sure that you fetching the next page if the next_offset element is not -1, or are invoking that method with howMany=XXX and a sufficiently large enough value to get everything you need in a single request.

3

yeah i have the same problem

4

Hi,

I have just performed a new query, type=“scheduled”, without howMany and offset, and the result just gives 4 flights (nextOffset = -1), as you can see in the following code. However, I’m missing some more flights, as e.g. IB8947, FR7045, AY1672, AT989, IB8274. With such a low number of flights, howMany is not limiting, it should include at least 15 flights. Same problem happens with type=“onRoute”.

{
"AirportBoardsResult": {
    "airport": "LEMG",
    "airport_info": {
        "airport_code": "LEMG",
        "name": "Malaga",
        "elevation": 52,
        "city": "Malaga",
        "state": "",
        "longitude": -4.499106,
        "latitude": 36.6749,
        "timezone": ":Europe/Madrid",
        "country_code": "ES",
        "wiki_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Málaga_Airport",
        "alternate_ident": "AGP"
    },
    "scheduled": {
        "num_flights": 4,
        "next_offset": -1,
        "flights": [
            {
                "ident": "HTY204",
                "faFlightID": "HTY204-1606271193-airline-0077",
                "airline": "HTY",
                "flightnumber": "204",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEMG",
                    "city": "Malaga",
                    "alternate_ident": "AGP",
                    "airport_name": "Malaga"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "GECE",
                    "city": "Ceuta",
                    "alternate_ident": "JCU",
                    "airport_name": "Ceuta Heliport"
                },
                "filed_ete": 1200,
                "filed_airspeed_kts": 183,
                "distance_filed": 70,
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606293000,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "09:30AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606296600
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606293120,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "09:32AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606296720
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "departure_delay": 120,
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606294200,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "09:50AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606297800
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606294320,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "09:52AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606297920
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "arrival_delay": 120,
                "status": "Taxiing / Left Gate",
                "progress_percent": -1,
                "aircrafttype": "AWH",
                "full_aircrafttype": "AWH",
                "adhoc": false
            },
            {
                "ident": "AEA1011",
                "faFlightID": "AEA26OX-1606250296-eb-0002",
                "airline": "AEA",
                "airline_iata": "UX",
                "flightnumber": "1011",
                "tailnumber": "EC-LVR",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEMG",
                    "city": "Malaga",
                    "alternate_ident": "AGP",
                    "airport_name": "Malaga"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "",
                    "city": "",
                    "alternate_ident": "",
                    "airport_name": ""
                },
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606295619,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "10:13AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606299219
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606295619,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "10:13AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606299219
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "status": "On The Way!",
                "progress_percent": -1,
                "aircrafttype": "B738",
                "full_aircrafttype": "B738",
                "adhoc": true
            },
            {
                "ident": "VLG21GU",
                "faFlightID": "VLG21GU-1606248065-ed-0003",
                "airline": "VLG",
                "airline_iata": "VY",
                "flightnumber": "21GU",
                "tailnumber": "EC-MVE",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEMG",
                    "city": "Malaga",
                    "alternate_ident": "AGP",
                    "airport_name": "Malaga"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "",
                    "city": "",
                    "alternate_ident": "",
                    "airport_name": ""
                },
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606295710,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "10:15AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606299310
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606295710,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "10:15AM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606299310
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "status": "On The Way!",
                "progress_percent": -1,
                "aircrafttype": "A320",
                "full_aircrafttype": "A320",
                "adhoc": true
            },
            {
                "ident": "JAF1112",
                "faFlightID": "JAF1112-1606263600-airline-0025",
                "airline": "JAF",
                "airline_iata": "TB",
                "flightnumber": "1112",
                "type": "Form_Airline",
                "blocked": false,
                "diverted": false,
                "cancelled": false,
                "origin": {
                    "code": "LEMG",
                    "city": "Malaga",
                    "alternate_ident": "AGP",
                    "airport_name": "Malaga"
                },
                "destination": {
                    "code": "EBBR",
                    "city": "Brussels",
                    "alternate_ident": "BRU",
                    "airport_name": "Brussels"
                },
                "filed_ete": 9300,
                "filed_airspeed_kts": 364,
                "distance_filed": 1080,
                "filed_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606313400,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "03:10PM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606317000
                },
                "estimated_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606313400,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "03:10PM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606317000
                },
                "actual_departure_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "departure_delay": 0,
                "filed_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606322700,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "05:45PM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606326300
                },
                "estimated_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 1606322700,
                    "tz": "CET",
                    "dow": "Wednesday",
                    "time": "05:45PM",
                    "date": "25/11/2020",
                    "localtime": 1606326300
                },
                "actual_arrival_time": {
                    "epoch": 0
                },
                "arrival_delay": 0,
                "status": "Scheduled",
                "progress_percent": -1,
                "aircrafttype": "B737",
                "full_aircrafttype": "B737",
                "adhoc": false
            }
        ]
    }
}

}

5

Hi, did you have a chance to check if there is any problem? I have just done a new query, with just 3 flights as results (see below). But checking on the airports or some other webpages of flight information, you can get a lot of different flights not shown.

And this problem is not only related to LEMG airport. I have done a similar query with LIPZ airport, and once again the number of flights shown in FlightXML is much lower than the real flights shown in airport webpage or other flight information pages.

I would appreciate any help on this issue, as this is something that didn’t happen before, and my app is not useful at all.

  1. LEMG Query
    {
    “AirportBoardsResult”: {
    “airport”: “LEMG”,
    “airport_info”: {
    “airport_code”: “LEMG”,
    “name”: “Malaga”,
    “elevation”: 52,
    “city”: “Malaga”,
    “state”: “”,
    “longitude”: -4.499106,
    “latitude”: 36.6749,
    “timezone”: “:Europe/Madrid”,
    “country_code”: “ES”,
    “wiki_url”: “Málaga Airport - Wikipedia”,
    “alternate_ident”: “AGP”
    },
    “scheduled”: {
    “num_flights”: 3,
    “next_offset”: -1,
    “flights”: [
    {
    “ident”: “VLG21GU”,
    “faFlightID”: “VLG21GU-1606420874-ed-0002”,
    “airline”: “VLG”,
    “airline_iata”: “VY”,
    “flightnumber”: “21GU”,
    “tailnumber”: “EC-MER”,
    “type”: “Form_Airline”,
    “blocked”: false,
    “diverted”: false,
    “cancelled”: false,
    “origin”: {
    “code”: “LEMG”,
    “city”: “Malaga”,
    “alternate_ident”: “AGP”,
    “airport_name”: “Malaga”
    },
    “destination”: {
    “code”: “”,
    “city”: “”,
    “alternate_ident”: “”,
    “airport_name”: “”
    },
    “filed_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606463765,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “08:56AM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606467365
    },
    “estimated_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606463765,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “08:56AM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606467365
    },
    “actual_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “filed_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “estimated_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “actual_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “status”: “On The Way!”,
    “progress_percent”: -1,
    “aircrafttype”: “A320”,
    “full_aircrafttype”: “A320”,
    “adhoc”: true
    },
    {
    “ident”: “SWR2111”,
    “faFlightID”: “SWR2111-1606304767-airline-0019”,
    “airline”: “SWR”,
    “airline_iata”: “LX”,
    “flightnumber”: “2111”,
    “tailnumber”: “HB-JDA”,
    “type”: “Form_Airline”,
    “blocked”: false,
    “diverted”: false,
    “cancelled”: false,
    “origin”: {
    “code”: “LEMG”,
    “city”: “Malaga”,
    “alternate_ident”: “AGP”,
    “airport_name”: “Malaga”
    },
    “destination”: {
    “code”: “LSZH”,
    “city”: “Zurich”,
    “alternate_ident”: “ZRH”,
    “airport_name”: “Zurich (Kloten)”
    },
    “filed_ete”: 8100,
    “filed_airspeed_kts”: 387,
    “distance_filed”: 1000,
    “filed_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606478100,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “12:55PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606481700
    },
    “estimated_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606478100,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “12:55PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606481700
    },
    “actual_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “departure_delay”: 0,
    “filed_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606486200,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “03:10PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606489800
    },
    “estimated_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606486200,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “03:10PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606489800
    },
    “actual_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “arrival_delay”: 0,
    “status”: “Scheduled”,
    “progress_percent”: -1,
    “aircrafttype”: “32N”,
    “full_aircrafttype”: “32N”,
    “adhoc”: false
    },
    {
    “ident”: “HTY206”,
    “faFlightID”: “HTY206-1606461984-airline-0040”,
    “airline”: “HTY”,
    “flightnumber”: “206”,
    “type”: “Form_Airline”,
    “blocked”: false,
    “diverted”: false,
    “cancelled”: false,
    “origin”: {
    “code”: “LEMG”,
    “city”: “Malaga”,
    “alternate_ident”: “AGP”,
    “airport_name”: “Malaga”
    },
    “destination”: {
    “code”: “GECE”,
    “city”: “Ceuta”,
    “alternate_ident”: “JCU”,
    “airport_name”: “Ceuta Heliport”
    },
    “filed_ete”: 1200,
    “filed_airspeed_kts”: 183,
    “distance_filed”: 70,
    “filed_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606483800,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “02:30PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606487400
    },
    “estimated_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606483800,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “02:30PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606487400
    },
    “actual_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “filed_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606485000,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “02:50PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606488600
    },
    “estimated_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606485000,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “02:50PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606488600
    },
    “actual_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “arrival_delay”: 0,
    “status”: “Scheduled”,
    “progress_percent”: -1,
    “aircrafttype”: “AWH”,
    “full_aircrafttype”: “AWH”,
    “adhoc”: false
    }
    ]
    }
    }
    }

  2. LIPZ Query

    {
    “AirportBoardsResult”: {
    “airport”: “LIPZ”,
    “airport_info”: {
    “airport_code”: “LIPZ”,
    “name”: “Marco Polo Int’l (Marco Polo Venice)”,
    “elevation”: 7,
    “city”: “Venice (Venezia)”,
    “state”: “”,
    “longitude”: 12.351883,
    “latitude”: 45.505142,
    “timezone”: “:Europe/Rome”,
    “country_code”: “IT”,
    “wiki_url”: “Venice Marco Polo Airport - Wikipedia”,
    “alternate_ident”: “VCE”
    },
    “scheduled”: {
    “num_flights”: 9,
    “next_offset”: -1,
    “flights”: [
    {
    “ident”: “KLM1654”,
    “faFlightID”: “KLM1654-1606303200-schedule-0156”,
    “airline”: “KLM”,
    “airline_iata”: “KL”,
    “flightnumber”: “1654”,
    “tailnumber”: “PH-BGP”,
    “type”: “Form_Airline”,
    “codeshares”: “CXA9352,VIR5990,DAL9279,CES1828,KQA1654”,
    “blocked”: false,
    “diverted”: false,
    “cancelled”: false,
    “origin”: {
    “code”: “LIPZ”,
    “city”: “Venice (Venezia)”,
    “alternate_ident”: “VCE”,
    “airport_name”: “Marco Polo Int’l (Marco Polo Venice)”
    },
    “destination”: {
    “code”: “EHAM”,
    “city”: “Amsterdam”,
    “alternate_ident”: “AMS”,
    “airport_name”: “Amsterdam Schiphol”
    },
    “filed_ete”: 5820,
    “filed_airspeed_kts”: 243,
    “distance_filed”: 583,
    “filed_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606476000,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “12:20PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606479600
    },
    “estimated_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606476600,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “12:30PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606480200
    },
    “actual_departure_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “departure_delay”: 0,
    “filed_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606481820,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “01:57PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606485420
    },
    “estimated_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 1606482420,
    “tz”: “CET”,
    “dow”: “Friday”,
    “time”: “02:07PM”,
    “date”: “27/11/2020”,
    “localtime”: 1606486020
    },
    “actual_arrival_time”: {
    “epoch”: 0
    },
    “arrival_delay”: 600,
    “status”: “Scheduled”,
    “progress_percent”: -1,
    “aircrafttype”: “B737”,
    “full_aircrafttype”: “B737”,
    “adhoc”: false
    },
    {
    “ident”: “HOP1727”,
    “faFlightID”: “HOP1727-1606313861-airline-0001”,
    “airline”: “HOP”,
    “airline_iata”: “A5”,
    “flightnumber”: “1727”,
    “type”: “Form_Airline”,
    “blocked”: false,
    “diverted”: false,
    “cancelled”: false,
    “origin”: {
    “code”: “LIPZ”,
    “city”: “Venice (Venezia)”,
    “alternate_ident”: “VCE”,
    “airport_name”: “Marco Polo Int’l (Marco Polo Venice)”
    },

…

6

Some of this is the result of advanced airline schedules being much more liable to change between update cycles. This means that advanced schedules might no longer accurately be useful or accurate when populating boards.

The other component is the remaining data sources not being available due to government regulations or commercial arrangements. This means a flight not appear in the “scheduled” section due to the filed flightplan not being available for redistribution. In many of these cases a this means a flight may not appear until the aircraft is generating position reports, which can happen before departure, but usually occurs at the same time as departure. This may also extend to the “enroute” section since a flight can’t be marked en-route to an airport if the destination isn’t publicly known. In this case the flight will be handled as potion-only, and would have to be discovered through an endpoint like FlightInfoStatus instead.

7

Then, according to your answer, AirpotrtBoards is not a valid option for populating boards anymore, isn’t it?

What is then the way to populate departures & arrival boards using FlightAware FlightXML3? My current app is showing just this information, so as you may imagine is really important to get this information as accurate as possible. Otherwise, this app is totally invalid.

Best regards,

8

Over the last month I have also noticed a significant decrease in advanced airline schedules - and I’m only worried about US domestic flights, so I’m not sure how government agreements would affect these.

In particular, there are many Spirit, Frontier, and JetBlue flights missing until they are filed (an hour before departure). Also a lot of regional airlines are the same way.

Just recently, I’m even seeing gate information missing after departure. And these are for flights that normally always had gate information.

I feel like FA data integrity has gone downhill in the last month. Is there anything being done to improve on this?

9

@HuffTheWeevil have things improved at all? I hadn’t noticed much of a shift in the data I’ve been monitoring, but I’ve had an increase in customer complaints lately with respect to the timeliness / lead time of flight info in my application.

@dogrock / @bovineone - are there still some wonky issues happening on account of COVID-19 making advance scheduling somewhat unreliable compared to the past? I asked about this in May ( AirlineFlightSchedules Beta long response time - #9 by ottergoose ) any progress since then?

10

There hasn’t been any improvement. Some flights still do not appear until just a few hours before departure.

Additionally, some flights appear that are not actually operating. (Example: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/FFT108/history/20210114/2015Z/KPHL/TJSJ) Interestingly enough, if you check Frontier’s own website for flight status on that flight - they also show it listed…and it’s still on time! :roll_eyes: So I don’t necessarily blame FA for that. Clearly all the data sources still think the flight was operating today.

It begs the question of when the entire aviation data system will get back to the levels of data integrity that we had pre-COVID.

11

Some of the issue is late schedule changes by the airlines. We are looking into this though and believe there may be a related change we can make that will produce scheduled flights in Airport Boards earlier by using a different data source. We’ll be working on this in the next 2 weeks.

1 Like
12

You should be seeing some improvement now with scheduled flights in airport boards.