KBWI · BWI · Baltimore, Maryland
Planes near BWI: live flight tracking at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI / KBWI) serves Baltimore, Maryland, United States. One of three fields serving the Washington area, inside heavily restricted airspace.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Baltimore. The frame is fixed on the field; tap or click an aircraft to open its full details.
Nothing here is filtered. Military aircraft, aircraft in the FAA's LADD privacy programme and aircraft using temporary addresses all appear the same way anything else does. Open the full map to pan, zoom and switch layers.
Movements we watched happen
Snapshot written . This page refreshes by itself while it is open.
These are transitions the receiver network actually observed at BWI, each with the time it was seen. Nothing here is guessed from a timetable.
Why there may be fewer departures than arrivals
A departure is only counted once a receiver has seen the aircraft on the ground here first. That guard stops us inventing takeoffs for aircraft that merely flew overhead, and it costs us real ones: hearing an aircraft sitting on an airport surface needs a receiver with line of sight to that surface, which is the hardest reception there is. An arrival only needs the aircraft to have been seen airborne, and airborne coverage is very good.
So at any airport without a clear view of the ground, this list will show fewer departures than actually happened. If you see more arrivals than departures below, read that as a fact about where the antennas are, not about the airport.
| Time | Movement | Flight | Aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:53 UTC | Arrival | AAL1318 | A321 · N978UY |
| 02:49 UTC | Departure | SWA4247 | B38M · N8912Q |
| 02:40 UTC | Departure | SWA1090 | B38M · N9021F |
| 02:39 UTC | Arrival | SWA3003 | B737 · N295WN |
| 02:35 UTC | Arrival | SWA3814 | B738 · N8637A |
| 02:29 UTC | Departure | FDX1217 | A306 · N657FE |
| 02:22 UTC | Arrival | UAL1114 | A320 · N483UA |
| 02:20 UTC | Arrival | SWA4864 | B738 · N8323C |
8 movements in the current recording window.
What appears to be inbound and outbound right now
Where the aircraft in range right now are most likely heading, worked out from their callsigns rather than watched happening.
How this list is built
We take the aircraft the receiver network can currently hear, read the callsign each one is broadcasting, and look that callsign up in an index of the routes it has actually flown before. An entry means this callsign's most commonly observed route ends at BWI. That is a good guide to where a flight is going. It is not a flight plan: nobody has told us today's routing, and we would rather say that than dress an inference up as a schedule.
The consequences are worth knowing. A diversion or an unusual routing will be listed wrong. A charter, a positioning leg, or any flight the index has not seen before is missing entirely. You will occasionally see an aircraft here sitting on the ground on the far side of a continent, which is the method showing its working rather than hiding it. There are no scheduled times or arrival estimates on this page because neither can be computed honestly from what we hold.
For gates, delays and cancellations the airline and the airport are authoritative. This page is for what is actually in the air.
Inbound nearest 20 of 27
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL2918B739 · N886DN | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 2,525 ft | 228 kt | 9 nmESE of the field |
| AAL3216B738 · N855NN | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 20,750 ft | 449 kt | 70 nmSSW of the field |
| SWA1090B38M · N9021F | CharlestonKCHS / CHS | 31,425 ft | 430 kt | 104 nmS of the field |
| SWA160B38M · N8782Q | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 17,250 ft | 378 kt | 203 nmWNW of the field |
| CSB188N751CS | BostonKBOS / BOS | 38,000 ft | 384 kt | 236 nmNE of the field |
| SWA4251B38M · N8956Q | TampaKTPA / TPA | 34,000 ft | 429 kt | 278 nmNNW of the field |
| FFT4712A21N · N679FR | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 33,650 ft | 504 kt | 367 nmSW of the field |
| FFT2310N650FR | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 34,975 ft | 490 kt | 375 nmSSW of the field |
| SWA3183B38M · N8852Q | NorfolkKORF / ORF | 2,825 ft | 263 kt | 519 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL2251A321 · N163AA | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | 27,025 ft | 485 kt | 525 nmWSW of the field |
| SWA3196B38M · N8768Q | Providence/WarwickKPVD / PVD | 2,050 ft | 170 kt | 526 nmWNW of the field |
| SWA1475B737 · N499WN | JacksonvilleKJAX / JAX | 32,000 ft | 471 kt | 586 nmWSW of the field |
| SWA235B38M · N8731J | Las VegasKLAS / LAS | 37,000 ft | 439 kt | 630 nmSW of the field |
| SWA1665B38M · N8916Q | NorfolkKORF / ORF | 3,900 ft | 164 kt | 825 nmWNW of the field |
| SWA3143B737 · N7746C | OntarioKONT / ONT | 900 ft | 123 kt | 838 nmW of the field |
| SWA267B738 · N8611F | AustinKAUS / AUS | 40,000 ft | 469 kt | 846 nmW of the field |
| SWA1534B38M · N8724J | Sarasota/BradentonKSRQ / SRQ | 10,425 ft | 317 kt | 1,304 nmW of the field |
| SWA1637B737 · N941WN | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 36,000 ft | 442 kt | 1,588 nmW of the field |
| SWA4550B737 · N497WN | Raleigh/DurhamKRDU / RDU | on the ground | 0 kt | 1,617 nmWNW of the field |
| SWA2612N8949Q | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 31,975 ft | 481 kt | 1,684 nmW of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 38
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UPS1207A306 · N138UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | on the ground | 2 kt | 1 nmN of the field |
| FDX1217A306 · N657FE | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 34,000 ft | 403 kt | 186 nmWSW of the field |
| SWA172B38M · N8839Q | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 41,000 ft | 503 kt | 190 nmWSW of the field |
| CSB7512B763 · N1487A | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 40,025 ft | 443 kt | 314 nmS of the field |
| FFT2309N648FR | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 34,000 ft | 450 kt | 383 nmSSW of the field |
| SCX3064B738 · N5167A | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 22,000 ft | 418 kt | 441 nmWSW of the field |
| SWA2070B737 · N455WN | Grand RapidsKGRR / GRR | 5,850 ft | 270 kt | 498 nmWNW of the field |
| UAL791B739 · N69833 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 36,000 ft | 466 kt | 533 nmS of the field |
| SWA693B38M · N8820L | DallasKDAL / DAL | 38,000 ft | 446 kt | 647 nmSSW of the field |
| FFT1665A20N · N396FR | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 9,525 ft | 303 kt | 808 nmSSW of the field |
| SWA164B738 · N8626B | AlbanyKALB / ALB | 10,025 ft | 317 kt | 809 nmW of the field |
| ATN3309B763 · N641AZ | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 32,025 ft | 480 kt | 856 nmWSW of the field |
| SWA1040B738 · N8515X | NorfolkKORF / ORF | 39,975 ft | 430 kt | 889 nmW of the field |
| SWA4817B38M · N8722L | Sarasota/BradentonKSRQ / SRQ | 36,000 ft | 468 kt | 919 nmW of the field |
| SCX3095B738 · N5237A | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | 38,000 ft | 442 kt | 922 nmW of the field |
| SWA4323B738 · N8668A | New OrleansKMSY / MSY | 40,000 ft | 424 kt | 925 nmW of the field |
| ICE42PB39M · TF-ICB | ReykjavíkBIKF / KEF | 35,000 ft | 547 kt | 930 nmNE of the field |
| SWA1576B38M · N8890Q | AustinKAUS / AUS | 37,000 ft | 501 kt | 995 nmWNW of the field |
| SWA898B38M · N8989L | CharlestonKCHS / CHS | 4,975 ft | 269 kt | 1,041 nmWSW of the field |
| SWA3065B38M · N8891Q | BostonKBOS / BOS | 14,875 ft | 388 kt | 1,063 nmWSW of the field |
About Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall
- ICAO codeKBWI
- IATA codeBWI
- ServesBaltimore
- RegionMaryland, United States
- Coordinates39.175°N, 76.668°W
Baltimore/Washington International sits between Baltimore and Washington, and shares the region with Reagan National and Dulles. The whole area sits under some of the most restricted airspace in the United States, with permanent prohibitions and special flight rules that shape every route in and out. Very little here is casual.
Watch what does not happen. Light aircraft that would wander freely almost anywhere else follow narrow defined paths here, and the empty zones on the map are as informative as the busy ones.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
BWI is the IATA code: three letters, the one printed on a
boarding pass and a baggage tag, assigned for commercial purposes and reused across
the world without any geographic logic.
KBWI is the ICAO code: four letters, used by air traffic
control, flight planning systems and trackers like this one. Its first
letter, K, marks
the contiguous United States, because ICAO allocates the code space by region.
The callsigns in the lists above are a third thing again. A callsign is what the crew typed into the transponder for this leg, so it changes flight by flight, while the registration and the 24-bit hex address stay with the airframe. When a callsign and a registration disagree, the registration is usually the more reliable of the two.
How to read the numbers
Altitude is pressure altitude, which is what the aircraft's air data system reads with a standard pressure setting. It is not height above the ground and it is not always the altitude the crew is flying to. Near Baltimore that gap is most obvious on approach, when a tracker can show a figure that does not match what is on the flight deck.
Ground speed is speed across the earth, not through the air. A strong tailwind can add a hundred knots or more to it without the aircraft flying any faster, which is why two aircraft at the same level going opposite ways can show wildly different numbers. Track is the direction of travel over the ground, which is not the direction the nose is pointing when there is any crosswind at all.
Aircraft go missing from this map for reasons that have nothing to do with the aircraft. Reception is line of sight, so terrain and distance cut it off abruptly; a good deal of light aviation in the United States broadcasts on 978 MHz rather than 1090 MHz; and plenty of aircraft, including gliders and older light types, carry no ADS-B at all and are not required to. How ADS-B works covers all of that properly.
Other airports on the map
The nearest fields with their own live page:
