KLAX · LAX · Los Angeles, California

Planes near LAX: live flight tracking at Los Angeles International

Los Angeles International (LAX / KLAX) serves Los Angeles, California, United States. Ocean on one side, one of the densest light-aircraft basins anywhere on the other.

33.943°N, 118.408°W · snapshot written 29 August 2026 at 02:58 UTC

The live map

Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Los Angeles. 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 29 August 2026 at 02:58 UTC. This page refreshes by itself while it is open.

These are transitions the receiver network actually observed at LAX, 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.

Most recent first. Times are UTC. Recording is continuous, so a short list here means quiet hours or a thin view of the surface, not a quiet airport.
Time	Movement	Flight	Aircraft
02:58 UTC	Arrival	QXE2140	E75L · N643QX
02:58 UTC	Departure	UAL1100	B738 · N35260
02:57 UTC	Departure	SWA2327	B38M · N8862Q
02:57 UTC	Departure	VOI1717	A21N · XA-YAA
02:56 UTC	Arrival	SKW5969	E75L · N607UX
02:55 UTC	Departure	SKW3303	E75L · N403SY
02:55 UTC	Arrival	CSN327	B77W · B-20CK
02:55 UTC	Departure	UAL517	B738 · N77525
02:54 UTC	Arrival	SKW6292	CRJ7 · N754SK
02:53 UTC	Arrival	SWA417	B38M · N8937Q
02:53 UTC	Arrival	AAL2221	A321 · N908AA
02:53 UTC	Departure	KAL8204	B77L · HL8005

Showing the most recent 12 of 40 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 LAX. 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 60

Aircraft whose callsign most often ends at LAX, nearest first. Distance is straight line from the field, not track miles.
Flight	From	Altitude	Ground speed	Distance
DAL291A359 · N514DN	Paris (Roissy-en-France,LFPG / CDG	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmNW of the field
AAL2364B738 · N940AN	ChicagoKORD / ORD	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmSSE of the field
DAL500B753 · N586NW	AtlantaKATL / ATL	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmNNE of the field
DAL852A21N · N614DN	DetroitKDTW / DTW	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmN of the field
DAL1629B739 · N832DN	San FranciscoKSFO / SFO	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmNNE of the field
FFT4145A21N · N763FR	OrlandoKMCO / MCO	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmWSW of the field
UAL2240A21N · N14549	DenverKDEN / DEN	on the ground	0 kt	1 nmE of the field
UAL2276B753 · N57862	DullesKIAD / IAD	225 ft	118 kt	1 nmESE of the field
DAL2861B739 · N869DN	SeattleKSEA / SEA	7,850 ft	249 kt	7 nmNW of the field
SKW5628E75L · N610UX	SacramentoKSMF / SMF	3,200 ft	204 kt	13 nmENE of the field
FFT4500A20N · N388FR	PortlandKPDX / PDX	3,100 ft	192 kt	14 nmE of the field
SKW3712E75L · N258SY	SacramentoKSMF / SMF	11,125 ft	297 kt	17 nmWNW of the field
MXY780BCS3 · N219BZ	Providence/WarwickKPVD / PVD	6,125 ft	271 kt	21 nmE of the field
DAL2082B738 · N389DA	MemphisKMEM / MEM	8,025 ft	278 kt	28 nmE of the field
DAL771B764 · N839MH	New YorkKJFK / JFK	10,225 ft	271 kt	35 nmE of the field
UAL1967B753 · N75858	ChicagoKORD / ORD	19,775 ft	364 kt	70 nmE of the field
ASA63B38M · N821AK	SeattleKSEA / SEA	35,000 ft	461 kt	100 nmNW of the field
CAO1166B77L · B-2092	MiamiKMIA / MIA	37,000 ft	449 kt	133 nmE of the field
ASA964A21N · N209HA	Lihue, KauaiPHLI / LIH	32,975 ft	501 kt	148 nmW of the field
AAL1578A321 · N113AN	BostonKBOS / BOS	34,800 ft	423 kt	152 nmENE of the field

Outbound nearest 20 of 60

Aircraft whose callsign most often begins at LAX, nearest first. Distance is straight line from the field, not track miles.
Flight	To	Altitude	Ground speed	Distance
SWR41GB77W · HB-JNA	ZurichLSZH / ZRH	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmWSW of the field
DAL2202B739 · N951DX	Las VegasKLAS / LAS	on the ground	2 kt	0 nmN of the field
JBU1524A21N · N2193J	New YorkKJFK / JFK	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmENE of the field
JBU1400A321 · N964JT	Fort LauderdaleKFLL / FLL	on the ground	0 kt	0 nmENE of the field
SWA4128N1808U	DallasKDAL / DAL	on the ground	0 kt	1 nmNE of the field
FDY808C208 · N823MA	El CentroKNJK / NJK	on the ground	0 kt	1 nmESE of the field
SKW3303E75L · N403SY	PascoKPSC / PSC	5,125 ft	250 kt	9 nmW of the field
KAL8204B77L · HL8005	SeoulRKSI / ICN	10,675 ft	312 kt	24 nmW of the field
UAL2641B752 · N57111	ClevelandKCLE / CLE	12,175 ft	302 kt	40 nmE of the field
AAL1528A21N · N422AN	PhiladelphiaKPHL / PHL	18,375 ft	354 kt	61 nmE of the field
AAL1362A21N · N437AN	PhoenixKPHX / PHX	29,050 ft	477 kt	71 nmESE of the field
DAL1559A21N · N591DT	San FranciscoKSFO / SFO	25,350 ft	472 kt	83 nmWNW of the field
SKW4087E75L · N294SY	San DiegoKSAN / SAN	on the ground	0 kt	94 nmSE of the field
SKW5000E75L · N504SY	St LouisKSTL / STL	30,850 ft	458 kt	95 nmE of the field
AAL315A321 · N169UW	MiamiKMIA / MIA	32,000 ft	444 kt	119 nmE of the field
UAL2681B739 · N75432	San FranciscoKSFO / SFO	28,000 ft	476 kt	135 nmNW of the field
SKW4971E75L · N513SY	Des MoinesKDSM / DSM	34,000 ft	391 kt	136 nmENE of the field
AAL3283B38M · N328TC	WashingtonKDCA / DCA	35,200 ft	442 kt	140 nmE of the field
DAL1483A21N · N600DZ	Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC	37,000 ft	498 kt	148 nmNE of the field
SKW6278E75L · N512SY	OmahaKOMA / OMA	35,000 ft	412 kt	181 nmNNW of the field

About Los Angeles International

ICAO codeKLAX
IATA codeLAX
ServesLos Angeles
RegionCalifornia, United States
Coordinates33.943°N, 118.408°W

Los Angeles International sits directly on the Pacific shore, so a large share of its traffic is over water within a minute of leaving the ground. In the usual westerly configuration arrivals cross the basin from the east and departures climb out over the ocean before turning back along the coast. The result is an unusually clean split on the map: inbound aircraft descending over land, outbound ones climbing over blue.

Zoom out slightly and the surrounding fields crowd in. Burbank, Van Nuys, Long Beach, John Wayne and Ontario all share this airspace, and much of the slow, low traffic you see belongs to them rather than to LAX.

What the codes mean

Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable. LAX 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. KLAX 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 Los Angeles 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: