FAA Airmen Certification Database Scraper

Extract certified pilot, mechanic, dispatcher, and other aviation professional records from the FAA Releasable Airmen Certification database — a publicly released federal dataset maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration.

This Actor downloads the official monthly ZIP file directly from registry.faa.gov, streams and parses the fixed-width MASTER.txt and certificate files in-memory, and outputs clean, structured JSON — no browser, no authentication, no API key required.

Features

• Official federal source — data comes from the FAA's own releasable database, updated monthly
• Filter by US state — narrow results to any two-letter state code (e.g., CA, TX, FL)
• Filter by certificate type — search for ATP (Airline Transport Pilot), Commercial, Private, Mechanic, Dispatcher, and more
• Privacy-respecting — street addresses are intentionally excluded; only city, state, country, and region are extracted
• Handles 600k+ records — streaming architecture keeps memory under 512 MB even for nationwide pulls
• No proxy required — the FAA database is a direct public download
• Always fresh — the scraper finds the current month's ZIP dynamically; no hardcoded URLs to maintain

Output Field	Description
uniqueId	FAA unique identifier for the airman
firstName	First name
lastName	Last name
city	City of record
state	US state code
country	Country code
region	FAA region code
certificateType	Human-readable certificate type(s), e.g. "ATP (Airline Transport Pilot)"
certificateCodes	Raw certificate type code(s), e.g. "A"
certificateClass	Certificate class and ratings from CERT/PILOT files
medicalClass	First Class / Second Class / Third Class (if applicable)
medicalDate	Date of medical certificate (YYYY-MM)
medicalExpDate	Medical certificate expiration date (YYYY-MM)

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How to Scrape FAA Airmen Certification Data

Step 1 — Open the Actor input form

In Apify Console, click Input on the Actor's run page. Three fields are available:

• State Filter — enter a two-letter US state code to filter results (optional)
• Certificate Type Filter — enter a type keyword such as ATP, Private, Mechanic, or Dispatcher (optional; case-insensitive, partial match)
• Max Results — maximum number of records to return (default: 5000; set to 0 for unlimited)

Step 2 — Run the Actor

Click Start. The Actor will:

1. Fetch the FAA Airmen Certification download page to find the current monthly ZIP URL
2. Download the ZIP file (typically 15–35 MB compressed, 150–300 MB uncompressed)
3. Parse the CERT/PILOT certificate files to build a certificate lookup table
4. Stream-parse MASTER.txt line-by-line, apply your filters, and push records to the dataset

Step 3 — Download your results

When the run finishes, click Results → Export to download as JSON, CSV, or XLSX.

Example: All ATP pilots in California

{
    "state": "CA",
    "certificateType": "ATP",
    "maxResults": 0
}

Example: All FAA-certified mechanics in Texas

{
    "state": "TX",
    "certificateType": "Mechanic",
    "maxResults": 500
}

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Pricing

Run type	Approximate cost
State + type filter (≤5,000 results)	~$0.01–0.04 (Apify compute) + $0.003/result
Full nationwide pull (600k+ records)	~$0.05–0.15 (Apify compute) + per-result fee

The Actor downloads a 15–35 MB file and processes it in a single run. Compute usage is low. The per-result fee is $0.003 per record extracted.

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Input Reference

{
    "state": "CA",
    "certificateType": "ATP",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
state	string	""	Two-letter US state code filter. Empty = all states.
certificateType	string	""	Certificate type filter (partial match). E.g. ATP, Private, Mechanic.
maxResults	integer	5000	Max records to return. 0 = unlimited.

---

Output Reference

{
    "uniqueId": "1234567",
    "firstName": "JOHN",
    "lastName": "SMITH",
    "city": "LOS ANGELES",
    "state": "CA",
    "country": "US",
    "region": "AWP",
    "certificateType": "ATP (Airline Transport Pilot)",
    "certificateCodes": "A",
    "certificateClass": "ASEL, AMEL, ASES",
    "medicalClass": "First Class",
    "medicalDate": "2024-01",
    "medicalExpDate": "2025-01"
}

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FAQ

How often is the FAA database updated? The FAA publishes a new release of the releasable airmen database monthly. This Actor always fetches the current month's file by parsing the official FAA download page, so results are always fresh without any code changes.

Why don't I see street addresses? The FAA marks address fields as suppressed in their releasable dataset and this Actor intentionally excludes them. Only city, state, and country are extracted — consistent with what the FAA itself makes public.

Can I pull all records without a filter? Yes. Set maxResults to 0 and leave state and certificateType empty. The full database contains approximately 600,000–900,000 records. Use a state filter if you only need a subset to keep your run fast and costs low.

What are the certificate type codes? Common codes: A = ATP, C = Commercial, P = Private Pilot, S = Student, M = Mechanic, D = Dispatcher, I = Flight Instructor, H = Remote Pilot (drone). The Actor outputs human-readable labels for all known codes.

Does this scraper require a proxy? No. The FAA registry is a public federal database with no rate limits or bot protection.

What certificate types are available? The database covers all airmen certified under 14 CFR: pilots (student through ATP), flight instructors, mechanics/A&P, aircraft dispatchers, control tower operators, remote pilots, parachute riggers, and more.

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Legal Disclaimer

This Actor accesses data from the FAA Releasable Airmen Certification database, which is a publicly released federal dataset provided by the United States Federal Aviation Administration under the Freedom of Information Act. Use of this data is subject to the FAA's terms for the releasable database. This Actor is not affiliated with the FAA.

The data extracted is limited to publicly released fields only. Street addresses and other suppressed fields are NOT extracted. Users are responsible for complying with applicable laws (including the Privacy Act, CAN-SPAM, GDPR where applicable) when using extracted data for marketing or outreach purposes.

For questions or support, contact: bciccarelli6@gmail.com