PlanesLive Scraper - FlightRadar24 Alternative

Track live flights, routes, and nearby air traffic from PlanesLive. Perfect for analytics, aviation dashboards, monitoring routes, and building flight data products.

🤖 What does PlanesLive Scraper do?

This actor fetches flight data from PlanesLive and saves it to a dataset (JSON/CSV). You can search by:

• ✈️ Route: by origin and destination airport codes (IATA like JFK, SFO)
• 🧾 Flight: by flight code (e.g., AAL123, AFR454)
• 📍 Nearby: by coordinates and radius (e.g., flights within 50–300 km)

It supports optional dates for historical queries and a maxItems cap for output size.

💡 Why use this flight scraper?

• 📈 Build real‑time aviation dashboards and alerts
• 🗺️ Analyze routes, fleets, and flight patterns
• 🔎 Monitor specific flights or airport pairs
• 📊 Power logistics, travel, and operations research

🚀 How to use

1. Add the actor to your Apify account.
2. Choose one of the input modes: Route, Flight, or Nearby.
3. Set maxItems and optional dates or distance.
4. Run the actor and download results from the Dataset tab.

Tip: Use Apify Residential proxy for the most reliable results.

📝 Input Parameters

Supply inputs as JSON. You can combine modes, but at least one of origins/destinations, flights, or coordinates must be provided.

Parameter	Type / Options	Default	Description
maxItems	integer (>= 1)	10	Required. Maximum number of items to save.
origins	array		Origin airport codes, e.g., JFK, LAX. Requires destinations.
destinations	array		Destination airport codes. Requires origins.
flights	array		Flight codes, e.g., AAL123, AFR454.
coordinates	array		Coordinates for Nearby search, e.g., "40.641766,-73.780968".
distance	string: "50" "100" "300"	"50"	Radius in km for Nearby search with coordinates.
dates	array		Dates for historical queries. If empty, today's date is used where applicable. Not for Nearby.
proxyConfiguration	object (Apify proxy config)		Proxy settings. Prefill uses Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy group.

Important rules:

• If origins are provided, destinations must also be provided (and vice versa).
• Nearby search requires coordinates; distance defaults to 50 if omitted.

🔧 Examples

Route — JFK to SFO on two dates:

{
  "maxItems": 100,
  "origins": ["JFK"],
  "destinations": ["SFO"],
  "dates": ["2025-09-20", "2025-09-21"],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Flight — Track a specific flight code on a date:

{
  "maxItems": 50,
  "flights": ["LY2", "AAL92"],
  "dates": ["2025-09-21"],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Nearby — Flights within 100 km of JFK coordinates:

{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "coordinates": ["40.641766,-73.780968"],
  "distance": "100",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

📊 Output

Each dataset item is a flight object from PlanesLive. Fields vary by flight, but commonly include:

• id, icao, iata, flight_type, status
• aircraft — regno, icao type, manufacturer, model, photo_url
• origin, destination, airline_icao, airline_logo_s, airline_logo_l
• departure, departure_actual, departure_terminal
• arrival, arrival_actual, arrival_terminal
• route_time, waypoints, positions
• Optional: seats, meals, shared_codes

Sample (shortened):

{
  "id": "98661756-22d7-4e5d-bcd9-a4bae2b3fbec",
  "icao": "ELY2",
  "iata": "LY2",
  "status": 3,
  "aircraft": {
    "regno": "4XEDI",
    "icao": "B789",
    "manufacturer": "Boeing",
    "model": "B789"
  },
  "airline_icao": "ELY",
  "origin": "KJFK",
  "departure": "2025-09-21T17:30:00-04:00",
  "destination": "LLBG",
  "arrival": "2025-09-22T10:50:00+03:00",
  "airline_logo_s": "https://…/ELY_S.png",
  "airline_logo_l": "https://…/ELY_L.png"
}

⚙️ Notes & Best Practices

• Provide realistic maxItems to avoid over‑fetching.
• Use dates for stable historical queries; omit for today's flights.
• When using coordinates, choose a reasonable distance (50, 100, 300).
• Apify Residential proxies are recommended for reliability.

💳 Pricing

Apify's Free plan includes monthly credits for small tests. For production workloads, the Personal or Business plans are recommended. See Apify Pricing for details.

❓ FAQ

• Does dates apply to Nearby searches? No; Nearby lists current flights around the coordinates.
• Can I pass only origins? No. If origins are provided, destinations are required (and vice versa).
• What airport codes should I use? Use IATA codes like JFK, SFO, LAX.

📥 Integrations

• Use Apify's API to stream dataset items into your app or warehouse.
• Export results as JSON, CSV, or via Apify Integrations (Zapier/Make, webhooks, etc.).

🆘 Support

Need help or a custom feature? Create an issue or contact us at t.me/igolaizola. Happy flying! ✈️

⚖️ Legal & Ethics

Web data collection may be subject to website Terms of Service, intellectual property rights, and data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA). Use this actor responsibly:

• Review and comply with PlanesLive's terms and acceptable‑use policies.
• Respect robots.txt and rate limits; avoid disruptive behavior.
• Do not collect or process personal data unless you have a lawful basis.
• Ensure your use complies with your jurisdiction's laws and your organization's policies. When in doubt, seek legal advice.

📜 Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by PlanesLive or its owners/operators. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.