Founded

2005

Headquarters

Houston

Key People

Daniel Baker, CEO

Number of Employees

110

Phone Number

(713) 877-9010

Website

FlightAware

FlightAware

FlightAware uses governmental air traffic feeds plus ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) data from terrestrial and space-based sources to provide global flight-tracking solutions and predictive technology to more than 100,000 aircraft operators and 13 million passengers annually.    

After tech entrepreneur Daniel Baker obtained his private pilot license in 2004, he sought a way for his family to track his flights. Obtaining live FAA data and calling on friends Karl Lehenbauer and David McNett to help write code, Baker publicly launched FlightAware.com in September 2005. 

The site garnered more than 1,000 account registrations in its first week. After receiving calls from customers wanting to purchase data reports, the three cofounders invested $25,000 for additional hardware, graphic design, and bandwidth capability. The company broke even by early 2006 and reportedly earned more than $1 million in its first 18 months.

FlightAware began archiving flight information, track logs, and maps for past flights, and in 2006 it launched FlightXML (now called AeroAPI), allowing access to its data for a fee. Also in 2006, the company started offering commercial user accounts for aircraft operators and air carriers. 

By early 2008, FlightAware had 15 employees and had opened offices in Houston and New York. The company also began displaying airline schedules and delayed-flight information. 

FlightAware Photos launched in 2008, allowing users to post images of aircraft to be embedded into flight-tracking pages. By 2018 the site held more than one million photos of 170,000 aircraft.  

FlightAware released its first iPhone app in 2009, followed by apps for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7 in 2011. 

After adding European and Australian general aviation tracking capability plus worldwide airline gate and schedule data, the company released FlightAware Global in 2012. This private platform for aircraft operators provides fleet tracking, FBO scheduling, historical reports, flight alerts, selective tail-number unblocking, and premium weather data. 

To enhance aircraft tracking capability around the world, FlightAware developed a network of ADS-B ground tracking stations starting in 2013. By offering its free FlightFeeder ADS-B receivers to aircraft operators and encouraging hobbyists to build PiAware receivers, the company has expanded its network to include 30,000 private ground stations in 199 countries as of 2021. FlightAware began to integrate Aireon space-based ADS-B data into its products and services in 2017.   

In 2019 the company launched FlightAware Foresight predictive technology to calculate precise aircraft taxi, departure, and arrival times based on weather, air traffic, airport configuration, and historical data.

Microsoft announced the integration of live FlightAware data into its MS Flight Simulator in 2020.