I thought of dissecting all review sites. However, I could find only 2 such sites — which reviewed flight trackers. They are good (up to one’s criteria, of course) so I will use them as a starting point.
I have also used information presented in the next (upper) post. It’s focused only on mobile flight trackers.
In this post, I am reviewing different flight trackers. I have also chosen the best 5.
My Top 5 Flight Trackers list is the following:
- FlightStats.com
- FlyteComm.com
- FBOWeb.com
- FlightAssist.com
- OAG STAR Alliance
To compile the rating, I used this source. It’s called “MAKE USE OF” and it reviews the following flight trackers.
* FBOWeb.com
They call it the “mother” of all flight tracker sites. Well, the list of features is indeed impressive:
-departure time
-estimated arrival time
-progress bar
-automatically updating map
-integration with Google Earth
-real time updating with the flight’s location and altitude coordinates
-Air Traffic Control (ATC) live audio feeds
Major problem: only tailored to the US, including airspace. Meaning: when tracking even a US originated flight like Aeroflot’s 316 from JFK you get “This flight is currently being tracked by London, UK radar facilities, and is restricted” (i.e. it is flying overseas). Oh-oh.
This service also require subscription (for some features). The second source, searchenginewatch.com, also points to this source, for its Google Earth integration.
* FlightStats.com
I think it is the father of tracking sites because even Google uses it for its information about “flight SU316″-like searches.
It also has widgets, facebook applications, and RSS feeds for airport delays.
It also supplies an “information-delayed-by” time which is a nice and rare feature. And estimated times of.. even departure! (Even though my test’s SU316 is scheduled to take off only 14 hours later, I see that it is scheduled for 1/2 hour later departure that’s probably true. A build-in lateness? JFK has to adjust schedules!)
Also the coverage is claimed to be the best in the world: “We cover more commercial passenger flights than anyone in the world. In addition to our complete coverage of North American flights, we cover flights operating in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and just about everywhere else.”
Feels like I would put this source in the first place. What do you think? Vote in this post!
Choose the Best Flight Tracker
Well, information on local flights looks complete (at least for Novosibirsk, Russia). Moreover, tracking flights by date (that I could not initiate on FBOWeb.com) is helpful since many transatlantic flight fly into the other day.
* FlightView.com
Lets you search for flights by airline and flight number or by city and time. Be sure to check out the airport traffic map which shows flights going into and out of major U.S. cities.
Even though it is mentioned by the two reviewers, I could not find any interesting specifics. US only.
* FlightAware.com
offers flight tracking, data analysis, statistics, and graphs, mobile access and a ton of other features. Impressive! Mentioned by the two reviewers.
* FlyteComm.com
More of the same variety. Also mentioned by the two. Different by the user interface.
Now, it is all good. But most of the reviewed sites are online (web) trackers. What if the cable is down, computer does not boot or you are in a taxicab? Remember my requirements? Well, I think mobile access (and not only from iPhone or SmartPhone!) is a MUST-HAVE. What is out there in terms of mobile support? My colleague has helped me with the mobile tracker list which is in the next (upper) post.
Here I will review two mobile trackers: OAG STAR Alliance and FlightAssist.
OAG Star Alliance will send SMS alerts if the schedule has changed or so did the departure/arrival estimated times. The service is free. But it only covers STAR Alliance airlines. Therefore, my test with Aeroflot fails.
FlightAssist offers SMS (cell phone text) notifications about arrival/departure, status confirmation, reminders and alerts if something has changed (estimated arrival/departure times) around the world. The cost is .99 cents per alert. Didn’t try it but looks good!
By the way, as always, similar information can be found on the airport’s and/or the airline’s websites (also with mobile capabilities).
UPDATE:
http://www.flightarrivals.com/ – something new, I guess, beta status, but failed S7 Airlines test
http://www.flightexplorer.com – a desktop app; US, Canada or New Zealand; failed S7 Airlines test.
