FlightAware: История и возможности сервиса отслеживания полетов

Software company based in Houston, Texas, US

In 2004, CEO Daniel Baker started exploring the idea of creating a free flight tracking service as he wanted a way for his family to track his private flights around the country. At the time, there were few enterprise solutions that offered this kind of service. Baker recruited friends Karl Lehenbauer and David McNett to help create a free public flight tracking service. On March 17, 2004, FlightAware was officially founded and began processing live flight data. FlightAware has been profitable since 2006 and is growing at the rate of 40 50% per year, as of April 2014. On November 16, 2021, Collins Aerospace completed its acquisition of FlightAware. In October 2023, FlightAware added helicopters to its flight tracking services. The new service has been given the name, Global for Helicopters.

The company's website provides flight tracking information and notifications of private and commercial flights as well as airport activity, flight and airport maps with weather, aviation statistics, flight planning and instrument flight rules procedures for airports in the United States and Australia. In addition, the site includes pilot services such as flight planning, aviation news, photos, and an aviation discussion forum. Users can register with the site for free, which adds features and functionality as well as the ability to participate in community features. Registration allows users to upload photos, submit aviation related news ("squawks"), participate in discussion forums, and set up aircraft alerts in addition to numerous other features. FlightAware reports over ten million registered users.

FlightAware provides various paid commercial services designed to support aviation related businesses, consumers, and FBOs. These services provide a significant portion of FlightAware's revenue.

The Global for Helicopters service began in October 2023 and allows helicopter flights to be tracked. FlightAware Global for Helicopters uses an ADS B transponder, which is already part of the aircraft. If the aircraft is operating with a 1090 MHz transponder, Aireon’s ADS B space based receivers can track them. Helicopter operators will be able to mark custom or temporary landing sites using coordinates.

A selective unblocking service is available for aircraft owners and operators to selectively choose friends, family, employees, and business associates who are allowed to track an aircraft's movements. When a selective unblocking is used, the aircraft movements remained blocked to the general public. An owner or operator can opt to do this for privacy or security reasons.

FlightAware TV is a web based aircraft situational display scaled for an HDTV. FlightAware TV can be customized to show a "fleet view" to monitor an entire fleet or in "airport" view to monitor airport activity such as departures and arrivals.

FBO ToolBox is a Web based, market analysis and flight tracking application that allows FBO managers insight into their customers. Primary features include competitive fuel price analysis, airport traffic analysis, AMSTAT operator information, airport history reports, and top origins/destinations. A proprietary fuel burn calculator estimates the number of gallons necessary to complete a filed flight plan, and can deliver FBO managers a picture of potential fuel sales on any given day. In May 2012, FlightAware launched "FBO ToolBox Europe" for airport operators in Europe.

Custom reports can be generated with a variety of parameters to aid aircraft owners, operators, airports, and business owners in planning decisions. For example, a historical report can be compiled to analyze air traffic frequency at a particular airport.

Premium user accounts allow members access to unlimited flight alerts, increased visibility of historical flight data, European weather, tail number data, full screen HDTV maps, fleet tracking, and the ability to view more flights per page. There are three levels of premium accounts that are available for a monthly fee.

Automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS B) is a technology for tracking aircraft. FlightAware operates a network of ADS B receivers for tracking ADS B equipped aircraft. FlightAware offers that professional operators of existing ADS B sites can connect their receivers to FlightAware and, in exchange, receive additional account features/privileges. FlightAware produces FlightFeeder, a small ADS B receiver that receives and processes ADS B data, then sends it to FlightAware over the Internet and also makes the data available locally. FlightAware provides this unit free of charge to individuals in areas where FlightAware's ADS B network does not have sufficient coverage. The company deploys 75 100 new FlightFeeders per month. As of August 13, 2023, FlightAware has 35,900 ADS B sites in 193 countries, an increase of 16,201 sites since October 22, 2018. In September 2016, Aireon and FlightAware announced a partnership to provide this global space based ADS B data to airlines for flight tracking of their fleets and, in response to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, for compliance with the ICAO Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) requirement for airlines to track their fleets.

FlightAware has a query based flight tracking API called AeroAPI (formerly FlightXML). Functionality includes flight status, airline data, maps, and push call backs. AeroAPI can be accessed via Representational state transfer or Simple Object Access Protocol and the API can be accessed from any programming language that supports JSON or XML, including Python, Ruby, Java, Tcl, Perl, ASP, and other languages. Push notifications allow an app to be alerted about flight plans, schedule changes, departures, arrivals, cancellations, diversions, and more. AeroAPI users can also receive airline information such as gate assignments, gate times, seat information, aircraft tail number, and codeshare details.

FlightAware has a live data feed called Firehose for third parties to incorporate live FlightAware positions around the world into their applications. Data is available as live snapshots or a streaming data feed.

ARINC partnered with FlightAware and uses the FlightAware web application for ARINC Direct business aircraft operators. SITA, Rockwell Collins, and IBM's The Weather Company partnered with FlightAware to use FlightAware's worldwide data in their products for airlines.