I was looking to migrate FIDS project from another data provider to FlightAware using FlightXML.
Basically I need Arrival and Departure screens with flights 6 hours before to 6 hours after the current time, for example:
Departures
Airline Flight Destination Status Time
Delta Air Lines 4828 Detroit Delayed 17 minutes 6:15 PM
American Airlines 3138 Chicago On-time 8:23 PM
Arrivals
Airline Flight From Status Time
United Airlines 5599 Chicago Arrived 20 minutes late 5:59 PM
American Airlines 3138 Chicago 31 minutes late 8:08 PM
I have been accessing the FlightXML API fine, and looking at the following:
Enroute
Arrived
Scheduled
Departed
But these do not seem to have Airline name information or Status information.
I can extrapolate the Flight Ident and run through a list of Codeshares to display the proper Airline for most cases, but codeshares can get crazy sometimes.
I have kind of looked through a lot of the other Operations available for FlightXML, and I am not really finding what I am looking for.
Am I missing something?
If anyone has information that I overlooked, please let me know?
I too am looking to replace another provider for FIDS data using FlightAware. The problem I am running into is that the information that comes back for flights is based on the identifier. An example of this is PDT4930 which is an American Airlines flight flown by Piedmont airlines. The information that I need is that it is an American Airlines flight. I can’t find a way using the available data to connect the PDT flight to American Airlines.
Unfortunately after spending some time working with the API, FlightAware’s current offerings are going to be cost prohibitive for the budget I have for existing project.
My current provider I make 2 calls to the API every 15 minutes (1 for Arrivals and 1 for Departures). This gives me all the common information used for Airport Flight Information Displays in two easy calls. Unfortunately they are about to require a $500/month minimum for their product, in which I only use about $45/month currently as that is what is budgeted for existing project.
To get the same data with FlightAware I would have to make about 10-200 calls every 15 minutes depending on time of day and number of flights. This is because I have to request information on every individual identifier to get Main Codeshare Airline, status of flight, etc. for each flight. This would cost $1000’s a month for data access, which is way too much.
Although it will not serve my immediate need, I would like to suggest that FlightAware look into providing a FIDS product in the Future.
It is evident that there is certainly a need for this, as many others seem to be in a similar situation as me, looking for a new provider that caters to small business providers.
FlightAware does have some other offerings in which I have interest in, but unfortunately my current needs can not be reasonably met with your service.
jrbtechnical:
I understand the need for better FIDS like queries. We are actually working on improving Enroute, Arrived, Scheduled and Departed for our next FlightXML3.
Thank you for your suggestions.
We are also dealing with the “other flight data service provider” who is changing their pricing structure to the $500/month minimum as well and was hoping FlightXML would be a good FIDS data alternative but it looks like we have to wait for FlightXML3…
Since we have to suspend services with the other provider on 3/1/2015 is there any ETA on FlightXML3? Q2, Q3, Q4?
Is there any update on the beta release of FlightXML3 that supports FIDS-related queries? I know Q2 2016 was the plan but I’m guessing it’s been delayed a bit?
There is no beta of that specific FlightXML3 functionality available for testing yet.
However, there is a FIDS example written in PHP designed for FlightXML2, if you would like to use that as a starting point for current development: github.com/flightaware/FlightXML-FIDS-PHP
