KIAD · IAD · Dulles, Virginia
Planes near IAD: live flight tracking at Washington Dulles International
Washington Dulles International (IAD / KIAD) serves Dulles, Virginia, United States. The long-haul field for the Washington area, out in the Virginia countryside.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Dulles. 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 IAD, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:58 UTC | Departure | UCA4265 | E45X · N21129 |
| 02:57 UTC | Departure | UAL1385 | B39M · N27503 |
| 02:56 UTC | Departure | UAL228 | B752 · N12109 |
| 02:55 UTC | Departure | UAL1463 | B739 · N68805 |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | UAL3934 | A21N · N14554 |
| 02:54 UTC | Departure | UAL2131 | B737 · N17730 |
| 02:53 UTC | Departure | UAL421 | B739 · N37427 |
| 02:51 UTC | Departure | FDX2204 | B763 · N286FE |
| 02:50 UTC | Departure | UAL126 | B764 · N78060 |
| 02:49 UTC | Departure | UCA4304 | E45X · N21154 |
| 02:48 UTC | Departure | ASH6155 | E75L · N80348 |
| 02:47 UTC | Departure | UCA4252 | E45X · N14177 |
Showing the most recent 12 of 36 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 IAD. 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 35
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL1460A320 · N484UA | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmS of the field |
| UAL1784B39M · N27568 | NewarkKEWR / EWR | 2,075 ft | 178 kt | 7 nmS of the field |
| UAL421B739 · N37427 | DenverKDEN / DEN | 16,150 ft | 357 kt | 27 nmW of the field |
| SKW4129E75L · N613CZ | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 9,275 ft | 308 kt | 30 nmWNW of the field |
| SKW3988CRJ9 · N831SK | DetroitKDTW / DTW | 12,350 ft | 349 kt | 48 nmWNW of the field |
| DAL847B738 · N390DA | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | 16,700 ft | 409 kt | 63 nmWNW of the field |
| UAL2408A21N · N24537 | DenverKDEN / DEN | 21,000 ft | 442 kt | 74 nmWNW of the field |
| AVL214C172 · N144ME | KOKV | 5,600 ft | 95 kt | 87 nmSW of the field |
| ASH4012E75L · N88330 | CharlotteKCLT / CLT | 15,075 ft | 381 kt | 132 nmENE of the field |
| UCA4270E45X · N12160 | BuffaloKBUF / BUF | 35,000 ft | 535 kt | 168 nmNE of the field |
| RPA3459N753YX | PortlandKPWM / PWM | 31,000 ft | 545 kt | 189 nmENE of the field |
| RPA3445E75L · N766YX | IndianapolisKIND / IND | 31,000 ft | 522 kt | 209 nmNNE of the field |
| RPA3559E75L · N747YX | TorontoCYYZ / YYZ | 17,600 ft | 364 kt | 250 nmN of the field |
| DAL541BCS3 · N337DU | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 37,000 ft | 496 kt | 264 nmWNW of the field |
| UWD18LJ31 · N418DL | TeterboroKTEB / TEB | 12,500 ft | 305 kt | 331 nmNE of the field |
| UAL2634B39M · N47524 | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 0 ft | 148 kt | 359 nmNE of the field |
| FFT3692A20N · N437FR | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 27,025 ft | 488 kt | 373 nmWSW of the field |
| DAL2549BCS3 · N311DU | AtlantaKATL / ATL | on the ground | 0 kt | 464 nmSW of the field |
| GJS4485CRJ7 · N550GJ | RichmondKRIC / RIC | 29,025 ft | 445 kt | 955 nmWSW of the field |
| UAL1535A319 · N898UA | Raleigh/DurhamKRDU / RDU | 20,100 ft | 407 kt | 1,019 nmWSW of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 57
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL689B739 · N66841 | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | on the ground | 16 kt | 0 nmS of the field |
| TAP234YA21N · CS-TXE | LisbonLPPT / LIS | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmWSW of the field |
| UAL861B764 · N76055 | São PauloSBGR / GRU | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmSSW of the field |
| UAL398B752 · N14106 | ReykjavíkBIKF / KEF | on the ground | 6 kt | 0 nmNNE of the field |
| UAL495N14518 | DenverKDEN / DEN | on the ground | 8 kt | 0 nmS of the field |
| UAL924B772 · N793UA | LondonEGLL / LHR | on the ground | 3 kt | 0 nmS of the field |
| THY8B77W · TC-LJK | IstanbulLTFM / IST | on the ground | 0 kt | 1 nmS of the field |
| UCA4265E45X · N21129 | CharlottesvilleKCHO / CHO | 1,200 ft | 175 kt | 2 nmW of the field |
| UAL1385B39M · N27503 | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 2,625 ft | 238 kt | 6 nmW of the field |
| UAL228B752 · N12109 | DublinEIDW / DUB | 4,775 ft | 264 kt | 7 nmNNW of the field |
| N66472C150 | ManassasKHEF / MNZ | 1,150 ft | 82 kt | 11 nmNW of the field |
| UAL1463B739 · N68805 | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 9,575 ft | 269 kt | 14 nmW of the field |
| UAL2131B737 · N17730 | ClevelandKCLE / CLE | 14,150 ft | 303 kt | 17 nmNNW of the field |
| UAL126B764 · N78060 | RomeLIRF / FCO | 17,675 ft | 452 kt | 37 nmENE of the field |
| FDX2204B763 · N286FE | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 22,175 ft | 444 kt | 43 nmW of the field |
| UCA4304E45X · N21154 | Knoxville/MaryvilleKTYS / TYS | 18,850 ft | 359 kt | 46 nmSW of the field |
| UCA4252E45X · N14177 | State CollegeKUNV / SCE | 7,825 ft | 275 kt | 49 nmN of the field |
| ASH6155E75L · N80348 | Providence/WarwickKPVD / PVD | 20,675 ft | 371 kt | 51 nmSSW of the field |
| UCA4901E45X · N12201 | HuntsvilleKHSV / HSV | 18,550 ft | 358 kt | 60 nmSW of the field |
| UAL942B772 · N77019 | LisbonLPPT / LIS | 26,650 ft | 486 kt | 76 nmENE of the field |
About Washington Dulles International
- ICAO codeKIAD
- IATA codeIAD
- ServesDulles
- RegionVirginia, United States
- Coordinates38.944°N, 77.456°W
Washington Dulles sits well west of the city in open Virginia country, with far more room around it than Reagan National has. It carries most of the region's long-haul traffic, so the destinations here run considerably further afield than at its neighbours. It also sits inside the same layered restricted airspace that governs everything around the capital.
Compare this field with Reagan National on the same view. The two are close together and behave nothing alike: one runs a tight river-constrained pattern, the other has room to spread its approaches out.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
IAD 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.
KIAD 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 Dulles 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:
