Flightradar24 API — Real-Time Aircraft, Bbox & Search

Flightradar24 API-style live aircraft tracker: query a bounded map area, airport, flight, or registration and return current position, altitude, speed, heading, aircraft identity, route fields, map URL, and source timestamp as structured data.

Pull current public aircraft positions worldwide with bbox queries, airport search, and registration tracking. This flight tracker API workflow is PPE-priced and does not require Playwright for the source request.

For implementation notes, examples, and live aviation data workflows, see the Flightradar24 Live Tracker guide on Konabayev.com.

What it does

Three modes covering the most common live-aviation use cases:

1. bbox — get every aircraft inside a lat/lon bounding box (or convenience preset like nyc, europe, russia, tokyo).
2. airports — search for airports/airlines/aircraft by IATA code or name. Returns the matching entities with metadata.
3. registrations — track specific tail numbers worldwide (e.g., N628TS for Elon Musk's Gulfstream, RA-96021 for Putin's IL-96).

Each flight returns a structured record: position (lat/lon/altitude/speed/heading), identity (registration/callsign/aircraft type/airline IATA), itinerary (origin/destination/flight number), and a Flightradar map link.

Flightradar24 API comparison: why use this Actor

There is no equivalent on the Apify Store today. Closest paid alternatives:

Source	Pricing	Notes
Flightradar24 Business API	$200-2000+/mo (enterprise tiers)	Full features but pricey, contract-only
ADSBexchange	$19.95/mo	Raw ADS-B feeds only, no airline/route enrichment
aviationstack	$29-499/mo	Slow, rate-limited
OpenSky Network	free (academic)	ADS-B only, sparse coverage
This actor	PPE, $0.005/flight	Pay only for results you actually use, AI-agent native

For agents that occasionally need aviation data, our PPE model is dramatically cheaper than monthly subscriptions.

How to run: input examples

1. Start with one bounded city/airport box and a small maxItems value.
2. Inspect timestamp, registration/callsign, altitude, speed, route fields, and map URL; empty fields are valid when the source does not expose them.
3. Schedule only the validated region or registrations and budget for every returned aircraft record.

Live flights over New York

{
  "mode": "bbox",
  "preset": "nyc",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Compare US east-coast vs Europe traffic

{
  "mode": "bbox",
  "bboxes": ["50,24,-130,-65", "72,35,-12,40"],
  "maxItems": 500,
  "includeOnGround": false
}

Track specific VIP/celebrity jets

{
  "mode": "registrations",
  "registrations": ["N628TS", "M-YBLU", "T7-LXG"],
  "maxItems": 20
}

Search airports by code

{
  "mode": "airports",
  "airports": ["JFK", "LHR", "SVO", "NRT"]
}

Filter Russia airspace by airline

{
  "mode": "bbox",
  "preset": "russia",
  "onlyAirlineIatas": ["SU", "S7", "U6"],
  "maxItems": 200
}

Output data fields

{
  "id": "3f8d7b02",
  "icao24": "A7DC99",
  "lat": 40.533,
  "lon": -74.956,
  "heading": 200,
  "altitude": 4700,
  "speed": 44,
  "squawk": "1200",
  "aircraft_type": "P28A",
  "registration": "N6053F",
  "timestamp": 1778006362,
  "origin": "MMU",
  "destination": "FRG",
  "flight": "",
  "callsign": "N6053F",
  "vertical_rate": -192,
  "airline_iata": "",
  "onGround": false,
  "mapUrl": "https://www.flightradar24.com/N6053F"
}

Use cases

• VIP jet tracking — journalists tracking oligarch / politician movements (open-source intelligence)
• Travel-app ETA prediction — cross-reference scheduled vs actual arrival times
• AI agents — give your assistant "where is flight UA42?" and "is JFK busy?" capabilities
• Logistics dashboards — cargo aircraft routing visualization
• Aviation research — flight emissions, route optimization, fleet utilization
• Drone safety apps — ground-airspace conflict awareness
• News/incident detection — diversions, emergency squawks (7500/7600/7700)

Programmatic usage

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("tugelbay/flightradar-live-tracker").call(run_input={
    "mode": "registrations",
    "registrations": ["N628TS"],
})
for flight in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if flight.get("registration") == "N628TS":
        print(f"Elon's plane is at {flight['lat']},{flight['lon']} alt={flight['altitude']}ft")

LangChain tool

from langchain_core.tools import tool

@tool
def find_flight(callsign_or_registration: str) -> dict | None:
    """Locate a specific aircraft worldwide right now."""
    from apify_client import ApifyClient
    client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
    run = client.actor("tugelbay/flightradar-live-tracker").call(run_input={
        "mode": "registrations",
        "registrations": [callsign_or_registration.upper()],
        "maxItems": 5,
    })
    items = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())
    return items[0] if items else None

Pricing (PPE)

Event	Price	Note
Actor start	$0.01	One-time per run
Live flight record	$0.005	Per aircraft returned

A typical 100-flight bbox query: $0.01 + 100×$0.005 = $0.51 per run.

FAQ

Q: Is this legal? A: We use Flightradar24's public data feed, the same one their iOS/Android/Web apps consume. No login required. Standard web-scraping rules apply — check Flightradar24's ToS for your specific use case if commercial.

Q: How fresh is the data? A: Real-time — positions are updated within ~5-30 seconds depending on aircraft transponder type (ADS-B / MLAT / FLARM).

Q: Coverage? A: Worldwide. Coverage is excellent over land in developed countries; sparse over open ocean. Flightradar combines ADS-B receivers, MLAT triangulation, and satellite ADS-B.

Q: What's the max bbox size? A: Whole-world bbox returns ~18-20K concurrent flights. Pricing × 18K = $90 — use bbox subdivision if you only need a region.

Q: Can I run this on a schedule? A: Yes. Use Apify Schedules to run every minute / 5 min / hour and pipe to your database for historical position tracking.

Q: Does it follow a specific aircraft? A: For live position only, yes (mode=registrations). For historical track of one aircraft over time, build a schedule that runs every N minutes and accumulate records.

Validation evidence and Flightradar24 terms (2026-07-14)

Validation on 2026-07-14 records the source and freshness boundary:

• Flightradar24 explains its receiver/data network in How it works.
• Flightradar24's current Terms and Conditions remain authoritative; commercial use may require a different licensed route.
• Results preserve the source timestamp, registration/callsign when available, and a Flightradar24 map URL for spot checks.
• Strict Actor QA validates schemas, metadata, links, Docker configuration, bounded defaults, and PPE declarations before release.

This independent Actor is not endorsed by Flightradar24. Evidence does not guarantee coverage, aircraft identity, future availability, historical tracking, rankings, or AI citations.

Limitations

• Position-only: this actor returns the current position snapshot. Historical track-replay of past flights requires Flightradar24's enterprise API (we may add v0.2 if there's demand).
• Bbox-bound: large queries cost more (priced per flight returned). Scope your bbox to the region you actually care about.
• Some private operators opt out via FAA's LADD/PIA programs — those flights won't appear.

Changelog

• 0.1.18 (2026-07-02) — HTTP retries now use exponential backoff instead of fixed delays.
• 0.1.11–0.1.16 (2026-06) — Fixed FR24's empty-bbox throttle (valid HTTP 200 with global full_count but an empty per-bbox feed on ~1/3 of requests) by rotating to a fresh residential proxy IP and retrying instead of returning an empty result.
• 0.1.0 (2026-05-05): Initial release — bbox, airports, registrations modes; presets for major regions; airline/on-ground filters.

Support & Feedback

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