Data & sources
Trustworthy flight information starts with being honest about where data comes from and what it can't tell you.
Our data providers
FlightScanNow retrieves flight information from licensed aviation data providers that aggregate airline schedules, airport operational systems and aircraft transponder (ADS-B) networks. Every result names the provider that supplied it.
We do not scrape websites, bypass access controls or republish data in violation of a provider's license. If a source can't be used legitimately, we don't use it.
How fresh is the data?
Each result shows when our server last fetched it. Active flights are refreshed more often than flights far in the future or already landed. We cache responses briefly so that popular searches don't trigger a new upstream request on every page view, the timestamp always tells you the real age of what you're seeing.
If our live source is temporarily unavailable, we either show clearly marked older data or an honest error, never silently stale information presented as current.
Scheduled, estimated and actual times
Every time on FlightScanNow is labelled. Scheduled times come from the airline's published timetable. Estimated times are operational predictions that can change. Actual times are recorded events. When a value is missing, a gate not yet assigned, an arrival not yet recorded, we show nothing rather than a guess.
Limitations
Flight data is operational data: it changes quickly and occasionally contains errors upstream. FlightScanNow is an information service, not an operational authority. For decisions, when to leave for the airport, whether a connection is safe, always confirm with your airline and the airport's own displays.