Flightradar24 tail number information

[RyanB]

I’ve always viewed FlightAware as the premier source for flight tracking data and in most regards it is. One thing that surprises me is the inability to view the tail number for the aircraft that’s operating each commercial flight. You can type in a flight number, but it doesn’t exclusively list the aircraft’s N number that’s operating the flight.

You can do a reverse search on FlightAware by typing in a tail number (ie., N851AS) and see what flight it’s operating, but you cannot go the other way around.

Lo and behold, Flightradar24 offers this information. A site that I used to view as third rate, actually has a feature that FlightAware doesn’t have. You can type in a flight number and it will list the aircraft tail that’s operating the flight.

Curious why FlightAware doesn’t do this?

 

[eman1200]

 

[eman1200]

I just punched in one of the tail #s above into flightaware and it came up.

 

[RyanB]

I just punched in one of the tail #s above into flightaware and it came up.

Yeah it works that way, but if you try to go the other way around it doesn’t show the N number.

Type on DAL2611 and you can see what I mean. It won’t show the tail for the aircraft that’s operating it.

Say you have a flight tomorrow and want to see what tail will be operating the flight. The only way to view that information, as far as I know, is by searching on Flightradar24.

 

[eman1200]

oh, yeah, then I dunno.

 

[eman1200]

"Can FlightAware tell me the tail number of a flight operating under a company name / flight number?
Yes. FlightAware.com uses this data to for a variety of features on the FlightAware.com web site. For example, you can usually track a flight by either the flight identifier (e.g., ABC123) or the registration number (e.g., N12345).

Please contact us if you have a commercial use for this data. "

 

[RyanB]

"Can FlightAware tell me the tail number of a flight operating under a company name / flight number?
Yes. FlightAware.com uses this data to for a variety of features on the FlightAware.com web site. For example, you can usually track a flight by either the flight identifier (e.g., ABC123) or the registration number (e.g., N12345).

Please contact us if you have a commercial use for this data. "

Hmm... that’s weird. I looked and looked and I don’t see any place where FlightAware offers the tail number for airline flights.

Like I mentioned before, if you already know the tail number than you can search by it, but if you don’t know it, than FlightAware doesn’t seem to offer it like Flightradar24 does.

Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing?