EX: SWA won’t let anybody track them by aircraft, is there a real reason some airlines won’t give out this info?
It’s not that they’re blocking it - it’s that they’re not providing it because they see no reason to.
The FAA provides data on all tail numbers. As an aircraft owner, you have to specifically ask for your tail nor to be blocked. So no, SWA has to have specifically asked the FAA to block their aircrafts. More general aviation aircraft owners are opting to be blocked to keep snoopers, FA members and deviants from tracking their whereabouts. The block program was briefly on hold (much to FlightAware’s delight) until GA groups forced the FAA to resume it (much to FA’s chagrin for obvious reasons). Now that the FAA block program is back on, the value of the FA service has gone back to being little more than a hit or miss. Lately mostly a miss. Somehow, FA has avoided getting into too much detail about this with members, probably for fear of losing them.
Ok you are really starting to seem like a troll. SWA is not blocking their tail numbers, their flights are reported by the FAA by their flight number. Some airlines have provided Flightaware with the tail numbers to link to the flight numbers, so that you may search both. SWA has not.
You can find out this information for the airlines carrying 1% or more of the domestic traffic. All airlines provide a tail number or other unique identifying information for each of their domestic flights on a delayed basis. This is available at the BTS site. The information is delayed about 2 or 3 months.