Plane Finder is an app that allows you to follow air traffic worldwide in real time. By its own account, Plane Finder is the number one app in the world when it comes to flight tracking. In the app you can easily navigate to a specific area of the earth by simply touching and zooming. This enables users to identify aircrafts that are in their vicinity. Another key selling point of Plane Finder is a unique feature. If you hold the camera towards the sky where an aircraft is flying, you get information about that flight. The smartphone becomes in itself a small radar station, so to speak.
For each flight a lot of information is available. Some of which includes:
- The Flight Route
- The Airline Company
- The Speed, and a lot of other Data.
If there is a special flight you want to follow, you can search for it using the following methods:
- Flight Number
- Location
- Airport
Features of Plane Finder for Flight Tracking
In addition to the above, Plane Finder provides information on arrival and departure times at airports.
Another great feature of Plane Finder is the alarm function. Every user can be automatically alerted regarding flights being tracked. Plane Finder will then send you a message as soon as a flight is near you or meets other criteria set for the notification.
In addition, Plane Finder also offers individual filters that can be saved. In this way, the user can quickly select a preset filter according to his interests the next time he visits the website or app.
The number of filters is unlimited. Plane Finder also allows you to name the filters as you like. So there are numerous possibilities to personalize the flight tracking experience.
The Plane Finder app is available for iPhones, iPads and Android phones. Of course, Plane Finder can also be easily accessed and used via the Plane Finder website.
The Coverage of Plane Finder
If you look at the coverage of Plane Finder, you will obviously notice something that also holds for other flight tracking services. In North America and Europe, air traffic coverage is almost 100%. The coverage of the radar system is somewhat thinner in South America, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Australia. However, the percentage of aircraft detected is probably almost 100% in these regions as well.
The coverage rate for Central Asia is however significantly below said percentage. Sparsely populated areas such as Mongolia seem to provide little data to flight radar systems. Africa is also an exception.
Moreover, coverage does not seem to be guaranteed in the southernmost part of South America and the northernmost part of Canada. This phenomenon can also be observed in competing plane tracking solutions such as Flightradar24, Radarbox24 or FlightAware.
In general, a flight radar and its data network is always supported by ground stations. This means that the coverage on land is much better than over the oceans, for example. It is likely that Plane Finder will eventually develop a technology to overcome this problem. It can be expected that more accurate data will be available in the future, even for areas that are currently not very well covered.
The Most Popular Planes, according to Plane-Finder
Plane Finder has published statistical data on the most popular aircrafts worldwide. This list provides information about which aircraft you will probably encounter most often in the sky.
Code | Aircraft Type | Quantity |
A320 | Airbus A320 | 16166 |
B738 | Boeing 737-800 | 15621 |
A321 | Airbus A321 | 5387 |
A319 | Airbus A319 | 4993 |
A20N | Airbus A320neo | 3859 |
B737 | Boeing 737-700 | 3151 |
C172 | Cessna 172 | 2438 |
AT76 | Atr ATR-76 | 2357 |
ZVEH | Z Z | 2259 |
B739 | Boeing 737-900 | 2206 |
Not surprisingly, this list is led by Boeing and Airbus. But a more interesting fact is that the small Cessna and a Z Z type aircraft have also made it onto the list.
How Does Plane Finder Work?
Thousands of people around the world use Plane Finder for flight tracking. This includes airline employees and other employees of the aviation sector (professional users), such as pilots and of course ground staff. In the private sector, mainly planespotters and aircraft enthusiasts access the data of this service.
The following section describes how Plane Finder works.
Plane Finder is also based on ADS-B technology. ADS-B stands for “Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast”. It is a system used worldwide to increase air traffic efficiency, manage aircraft fleets and ensure air traffic safety. According to Plane Finder, the technology also benefits the environment, the global economy and passengers.
Most commercial flights and also private airplanes transmit their so-called callsign, their speed and position as well as many other data via the ADS-B system. Plane Finder has therefore established a global network of ADS-B receivers. According to the service, the network is also constantly expanding. There are already thousands of Plane-Finder receivers distributed all over the world.
The receivers collect the signals from the aircraft and send this information via the Internet to the Plane Finder servers. However, Plane Finder is not based exclusively on data from the ADS-B system. The ADS-B data is enriched with additional information. This information includes:
- Aircraft Registration Number and Aircraft Data,
- Information about the Departure Airport,
- Information about the Destination Airport, and
- Aircraft Photographs
Plane Finder can even track aircrafts that do not transmit their GPS data. For this purpose, a procedure called “Multilateration” (MLAT) is used. According to the service operator, this technology can be used to achieve a high degree of accuracy in determining the position of aircrafts. The flight radar therefore also offers to track airplanes that do not continuously provide up-to-date data.
Information about Flights on Plane Finder
Flight tracking using Plane Finder provides the following information:
- Callsign
- Flight Altitude
- Position
- Speed
- Squawk Numbers
- Weather
- Traffic Data
- Terrain Information
All these data are also important for professional users on the ground. Air traffic control, for example, uses them to control air traffic more precisely. Flight radar information thus structures air traffic. Improved air traffic structure in turn ensures greater safety in the sky. Flight radar systems such as the one from Plane Finder therefore benefit all air travellers.
Taking a look at the amount of airlines that Plane Finder follows can make you dizzy. What is questionable, however, is how up-to-date the data from this service is. An extract of the trackable aircrafts of German Airline Companies shows that Air Berlin is also still listed. This airline has been out of business for some time, as is well known.
Name | Country | IATA | ICAO | Callsign |
Aerologic | Germany | 3S | BOX | GERMAN CARGO |
Air Berlin | Germany | AB | BER | AIR BERLIN |
Condor Flugdienst | Germany | DE | CFG | CONDOR |
Eurowings | Germany | EW | EWG | EUROWINGS |
Germania | Germany | ST | GMI | GERMANIA |
Germanwings | Germany | 4U | GWI | GERMAN WINGS |
Hahn Air | Germany | HR | HHN | ROOSTER |
Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter | Germany | HE | LGW | WALTER |
Lufthansa | Germany | LH | DLH | LUFTHANSA |
Lufthansa Cargo | Germany | LH | GEC | LUFTHANSA CARGO |
Lufthansa CityLine | Germany | CL | CLH | HANSALINE |
MHS Aviation | Germany | M2 | MHV | SNOWCAP |
Private Wings | Germany | 8W | PWF | N/A |
Sundair | Germany | SR | SDR | SUNDAIR |
SunExpress Deutschland | Germany | XG | SXD | SUNRISE |
Sylt Air | Germany | 7E | AWU | SYLT AIR |
TUIfly | Germany | X3 | TUI | TUI JET |
WDL Aviation | Germany | WH | WDL | WDL |
Even the Airport Search feature of Plane Finder raises a few questions. In Germany, for example, Tempelhof Airport, which has been closed for many years, is still available as a selection.
Statistical Information about Plane-Finder
The following short overview gives an impression of the amount of data offered by Plane Finder in connection with flight tracking, or rather the amount of data that makes flight tracking possible.
- Several Thousand Flights Available, around the Clock
- Several Thousand Airports to Navigate
- Several Thousand Cities are covered by Flight Radar
- Individual Aircrafts per Ground Station and per Day: More than 4,000
- More than 4,653 Reviews in the Apple App Store
- Average Rating of 4.6
- Available Languages:
- English
- German
- French
- Italian
- Japanese
- Dutch
- Portugese
- Spanish
- Chinese
FAQs that are answered by Plane-Finder Flight Radar
Many people around the world keep asking themselves questions about air travel. Among these are questions that directly concern them in relation to planned journeys. At the same time, however, people also seek answers to questions in relation to journeys undertaken by their loved ones. The following questions are some of the most common concerns users have when using flight radars
- What is that plane above me?
- How many planes are currently airborne worldwide?
- Is the flight of my friend / family member delayed?
- When does flight XYZ leave?
- What route does a particular aircraft fly?
Plane-Finder is Particularly Interesting for these Target Groups
We have already mentioned some of the target groups of the Plane Finder app above. In order to provide as complete a picture as possible of which user groups benefit from one of the greatest flight tracking services, here is a more or less complete list:
- Holidaymakers and their Friends and Families
- Business Travellers and their friends and families
- Aviation Enthusiasts
- Pilots
- Cabin Crews
- Aviation Professionals
- Airline Companies
- Residents of Areas Surrounding Airports
- City Planners
- People Looking for a New Apartment or Who Want to Move (Noise Pollution)
Sources and Apps for Plane Finder
Source: https://planefinder.net/
Source: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/plane-finder-flight-tracker/
The following Alternatives or Additional apps from Plane Finder are available:
- Plane Finder LITE (Free Flight Tracking App with Ads)
- Plane Finder 3D (Follow Flights around the World in Real Time in a 3D airspace)
- Plane Finder AR (Find Out Where the Planes Above you are Heading to Using the Camera of your Smartphone)