Keeping track of a flight is often essential when one needs to stay informed about any possible alterations or delays. This allows one to be prepared to make sudden adjustments to travel plans, which may include flight rescheduling. Additionally, monitoring a flight is useful for verifying the expected arrival time of a family member’s or friend’s flight. In such situations, knowing about the features of various tools and apps can help for real-time flight tracking.
FlightRadar 24
This is a versatile tool available as a free app and a website that allows users to track flights in real time. It offers comprehensive flight information, including the exact location of a flight, scheduled departures and arrivals, aircraft type and registration details for private and commercial aircrafts, as well as historical flight data. Based on various parameters, it also allows users to check flight records of the plane along with information about its previous flights on specific dates or over its entire lifetime.
Besides this, FlightRadar24 also helps in tracking flights that are flying in the vicinity. It can pull all the information about the flights flying over a specific area at a specific time of the given day. While all of this information is available for free, FlightRadar24 also has a premium plan that provides additional details such as airplane type, altitude, and speed.
iMessage
Those who have an iPhone can use the iMessage feature to quickly track a flight whenever needed. To do this, start by enabling the iMessage feature on the phone. Then, compose a message including the airline name and flight number in this format: [Airline] [Flight Number], for instance, UA 345 or United Airlines 345. Send this text to the phone number associated with the iPhone. Upon receiving the message, a hyperlink for the flight details will be generated. Click on the link and choose the option to preview the flight details. Once this is done, the app will directly provide a real-time tracking of the flight, offering details such as estimated arrival time, departure time, landing terminal, and baggage claim number.
Google flight tracker
This flight tracker is not as advanced as other tools and apps. But, it is one of the quickest and easiest ways to find out the basic details of a flight. So, whether one wants to check if a flight is arriving or departing on time, one can simply Google it. Just enter the flight number followed by the term “status” in the search bar and press enter. For example, type “UA 345 status.” The search engine will browse through several online flight trackers and then display the estimated departure and arrival times at the top of the search results. Additionally, if available, it will display the most recent gate and terminal information.
Apps and websites of airlines
An easy way to keep track of a flight is to use the app or website of the specific airline. Simply navigate to the flight status feature on the website or in the app. Enter details like the flight number and one can get the required information. While all airlines have their own tracking features, most provide details such as arrival and departure times, altitude, gate information, and a map that shows the exact location of the flight.
FlightAware
Using a network of several servers, this tool can determine the real-time location of a plane. With this, it can offer the tracking information of any commercial flight anywhere in the world. Available free of cost, FlightAware can be used through its app as well as website. The free version allows five searches per month. To increase the number of searches, there are premium plans ranging between $40 and $130 per month. To use this tool, all that is needed is the flight number to get the information about the arrival and departure times. If a flight number is not available, the Fight Finder feature can be used to track the plane. But this feature only works if the source and destination airports of the flight are known. Along with this, FlightAware also has a MiseryMap feature, which is an interactive feature that provides a display of airports currently facing issues and routes experiencing cancellations and delays on a given day.
FlightStats
An easy-to-use tool, FlightStats provides a lot of information to track a flight in real-time. Simply enter the flight number to get all the relevant information about the flight, including whether it will depart on time. Along with this, FlightStats also has an airport tracker tool, where one can find out whether any airport is facing any problems and if flights are experiencing any delays. All of this is available for free. Besides this, there is a premium standard account priced at about $3 per month, which gives access to flight alerts. Another plan priced at around $25 per month provides historical data of airports and flights.
