Between government shutdowns, a particularly harsh winter of storms, and conflict in the Middle East, flight disruptions seem to be an unavoidable part of air travel today.
To help navigate this uncertainty, some travelers are turning to flight tracking—a practice once reserved for plane spotters and pilots or other industry insiders. But with the rise of new flight tracking apps, memberships, and websites, it’s become increasingly mainstream.
One such app, called Flighty, says it’s grown so popular since it launched in 2019 that two out of three flights in the US now have a Flighty user on board. “I think people are realizing how little information the airlines actually give them,” says Paul Bernardini, Flighty’s head of marketing. “Flying can feel frustrating and out of our hands. Flight trackers can give you back that sense of control.”
Whether you’re a seasoned jet-setter, casual vacationer, or nervous flier, it’s never been easier to find information about your flight. Here’s everything you need to know to get tracking.
Why would you want to track your flight?
Most airline mobile apps will immediately notify you when your trip is delayed, but flight tracking can help savvy travelers anticipate delays before the departure board officially turns red. By figuring out your plane’s incoming flight, monitoring weather at your connecting or destination airport, and knowing where disruptions are stacking up, you can get a sense of what to expect hours before take off.
Anticipating flight delays before they’re officially announced might allow you to proactively switch to a different flight before it books up, or simply linger in the airport lounge for another hour. Cassie Gill, a lifestyle journalist, says the early updates from Flighty are particularly useful for multi-leg trips or travel booked on multiple tickets. “Sometimes the airline apps can be slow on the update,” she says. “As someone who travels a lot, I don’t like the mystery around that. I don’t want to be guessing.”
But sometimes, flight-tracking is less about predicting the future and more about reclaiming a sense of control over your travel plans—especially if you or a loved one is navigating stressful situations like tight layovers, airspace closures, or unexpected route diversions. For those interested in tracking the flights of friends or family members, apps like Flighty also offer real-time location-sharing and group chat features. Or, you can do it yourself (more on that below).
How does flight tracking work?
Most flight tracking is made possible by Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, or ADS-B. Planes broadcast their identity, location, speed, and heading about once per second, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These signals are public, so anyone with a relatively cheap receiver and a little bit of know-how can decode the signals to display a plane’s locations digitally.
Air traffic control has long used this data to safely guide thousands of planes every day. Now, a cottage industry of websites and apps are able to take this data and make it more digestible for everyday travelers by pairing it with airline schedules, FAA information, and weather radars to notify users of potential delays and cancellations, among a slew of other data points.
On r/FearOfFlying, nervous fliers trade advice, ask pilots safety questions, and even track each other through turbulence. Then, they share what they would have missed had they not traveled.
How to track a flight you or a loved one
Once you or a loved one has booked a flight, you can locate your flight number on your booking confirmation. It’ll look something like American 472, JetBlue 149, or UA2050, for example.
One differentiator to be aware of is a flight number versus aircraft registration number. The former is how individual trips are put into an airline’s schedule and sold to you while the other is a plane’s specific legal identity that won’t change, regardless of the route it is flying. The registration will be tied to your aircraft type, which can allow you to search for information like the specific type of seats on board (or outlets for that matter). This is helpful when deciding between flights or picking your seat assignment. Just be aware that the same plane type—even at the same airline—could have a few variations in seats and layout.
