KPDX · PDX · Portland, Oregon
Planes near PDX: live flight tracking at Portland International
Portland International (PDX / KPDX) serves Portland, Oregon, United States. On the Columbia River, with the Cascades and Mount Hood immediately east.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Portland. 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 PDX, 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 | N853AL | PC12 |
| 02:57 UTC | Arrival | SWA957 | B38M · N8969S |
| 02:55 UTC | Arrival | DAL503 | B739 · N926DZ |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | ASA434 | B39M · N924AK |
| 02:51 UTC | Arrival | ASA290 | B739 · N264AK |
| 02:49 UTC | Arrival | ASA9 | B738 · N592AS |
| 02:38 UTC | Departure | ICE662 | A21N · TF-IAA |
| 02:32 UTC | Arrival | ASA646 | B738 · N508AS |
| 02:30 UTC | Departure | UAL2615 | A319 · N830UA |
| 02:29 UTC | Arrival | ASA480 | B39M · N948AK |
| 02:28 UTC | Arrival | N853AL | PC12 |
| 02:26 UTC | Arrival | TDY1738 | PC12 · N723KP |
Showing the most recent 12 of 14 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 PDX. 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 32
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QXE2456E75L · N650QX | OntarioKONT / ONT | -50 ft | 81 kt | 0 nmS of the field |
| SKW3371E75L · N186SY | Santa RosaKSTS / STS | 1,550 ft | 146 kt | 6 nmESE of the field |
| ASA649B739 · N214AK | BurbankKBUR / BUR | 5,350 ft | 272 kt | 15 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA589B738 · N563AS | Santa AnaKSNA / SNA | 12,025 ft | 311 kt | 35 nmS of the field |
| ASA662B739 · N275AK | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | 17,475 ft | 349 kt | 55 nmS of the field |
| ASA1396B738 · N527AS | AustinKAUS / AUS | 16,575 ft | 337 kt | 58 nmE of the field |
| ASA814A332 · N379HA | Honolulu, OahuPHNL / HNL | 23,750 ft | 458 kt | 93 nmSW of the field |
| ASA301B39M · N972AK | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 33,975 ft | 424 kt | 110 nmESE of the field |
| TDY1337PC12 · N724KP | SeattleKBFI / BFI | 450 ft | 100 kt | 116 nmN of the field |
| ASA783B739 · N288AK | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 36,975 ft | 394 kt | 116 nmESE of the field |
| QXE2240E75L · N647QX | San JoseKSJC / SJC | 36,000 ft | 466 kt | 199 nmS of the field |
| ASA525B39M · N953AK | San FranciscoKSFO / SFO | 34,000 ft | 483 kt | 283 nmS of the field |
| ASA1319B737 · PR-VBY | BostonKBOS / BOS | 36,000 ft | 387 kt | 309 nmE of the field |
| ASA770B738 · N557AS | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 38,000 ft | 475 kt | 319 nmSSE of the field |
| DAL2151N586DT | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 35,975 ft | 398 kt | 341 nmE of the field |
| ASA1397B39M · N915AK | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 36,000 ft | 486 kt | 388 nmS of the field |
| ASA1377B738 · N536AS | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 38,000 ft | 394 kt | 396 nmENE of the field |
| ASA679B739 · N462AS | San JoseKSJC / SJC | 38,000 ft | 436 kt | 406 nmESE of the field |
| ASA779B739 · N253AK | Las VegasKLAS / LAS | 38,000 ft | 450 kt | 452 nmSSE of the field |
| DAL1244B739 · N854DN | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | 12,800 ft | 339 kt | 530 nmESE of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 28
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N853ALPC12 | RedmondKRDM / RDM | 775 ft | 95 kt | 0 nmNE of the field |
| N451LFB407 | Dallesport / The DallesKDLS / DLS | on the ground | 0 kt | 7 nmSW of the field |
| N738FDC172 | KTMK | 1,900 ft | 82 kt | 16 nmN of the field |
| REH8EC35 · N30RX | EugeneKEUG / EUG | 1,500 ft | 90 kt | 66 nmSSW of the field |
| QXE2125E75L · N653QX | MedfordKMFR / MFR | on the ground | 11 kt | 112 nmN of the field |
| ASA769B739 · N459AS | Lihue, KauaiPHLI / LIH | on the ground | 2 kt | 112 nmN of the field |
| ICE662A21N · TF-IAA | ReykjavíkBIKF / KEF | 28,775 ft | 507 kt | 114 nmENE of the field |
| ASA833N208HA | Honolulu, OahuPHNL / HNL | 34,025 ft | 500 kt | 147 nmSW of the field |
| UAL2334A21N · N14566 | DenverKDEN / DEN | 37,000 ft | 457 kt | 311 nmESE of the field |
| DAL1238A320 · N356NW | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | 37,025 ft | 455 kt | 362 nmESE of the field |
| UPS973B763 · N355UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 37,000 ft | 521 kt | 424 nmE of the field |
| FDX1216B763 · N125FE | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 35,000 ft | 494 kt | 494 nmE of the field |
| SKW3291N413SY | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | on the ground | 0 kt | 546 nmESE of the field |
| FFT1106A321 · N711FR | Las VegasKLAS / LAS | 31,000 ft | 436 kt | 588 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA1425B738 · N530AS | Santa AnaKSNA / SNA | 39,000 ft | 448 kt | 642 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA531B39M · N936AK | Las VegasKLAS / LAS | 6,500 ft | 210 kt | 672 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA1370B39M · N983AK | AustinKAUS / AUS | 39,000 ft | 463 kt | 702 nmESE of the field |
| FFT4500A20N · N388FR | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 3,100 ft | 192 kt | 726 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA97B39M · N962AK | OntarioKONT / ONT | 4,025 ft | 191 kt | 733 nmSSE of the field |
| ASA723B38M · N816AK | Lihue, KauaiPHLI / LIH | 31,100 ft | 436 kt | 736 nmSE of the field |
About Portland International
- ICAO codeKPDX
- IATA codePDX
- ServesPortland
- RegionOregon, United States
- Coordinates45.589°N, 122.598°W
Portland International sits on the south bank of the Columbia River, with Washington state on the far side and the Cascades rising to the east. The Columbia Gorge cuts through that range and funnels wind through the area with some force, which shows up in the difference between an aircraft's ground speed and the speed it is actually flying.
This is a good field for seeing what wind does to the numbers. On a strong gorge-wind day, two aircraft at the same altitude heading opposite directions can differ by well over a hundred knots of ground speed.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
PDX 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.
KPDX 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 Portland 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:
