KPHL · PHL · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Planes near PHL: live flight tracking at Philadelphia International
Philadelphia International (PHL / KPHL) serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A northeast-corridor field on the Delaware, packed between New York and Washington.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Philadelphia. 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 PHL, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:56 UTC | Departure | AAL780 | B788 · N883BM |
| 02:55 UTC | Arrival | FFT3480 | A20N · N369FR |
| 02:54 UTC | Departure | PDT6020 | E145 · N636AE |
| 02:52 UTC | Arrival | N187US | A321 |
| 02:49 UTC | Departure | PDT5843 | E145 · N669MB |
| 02:48 UTC | Departure | PDT5820 | E145 · N692AE |
| 02:46 UTC | Departure | UPS1193 | A306 · N150UP |
| 02:44 UTC | Departure | JIA5418 | CRJ9 · N560NN |
| 02:43 UTC | Arrival | PDT6104 | E145 · N908AE |
| 02:42 UTC | Departure | AAL754 | B789 · N835AN |
| 02:40 UTC | Departure | PDT5821 | E145 · N688AE |
| 02:37 UTC | Departure | AAL834 | A319 · N802AW |
Showing the most recent 12 of 19 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 PHL. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL2402B712 · N970AT | DetroitKDTW / DTW | 1,875 ft | 200 kt | 10 nmENE of the field |
| RPA5610E75L · N230JQ | BostonKBOS / BOS | 6,875 ft | 273 kt | 25 nmESE of the field |
| FFT1102A20N · N436FR | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 10,275 ft | 312 kt | 42 nmSSW of the field |
| AAL2978A319 · N832AW | Fayetteville/Springdale/KXNA / XNA | 36,800 ft | 557 kt | 55 nmNE of the field |
| AAL948B738 · N890NN | Raleigh/DurhamKRDU / RDU | 21,300 ft | 437 kt | 95 nmS of the field |
| FFT4440A21N · N634FR | Fort LauderdaleKFLL / FLL | 25,000 ft | 480 kt | 117 nmS of the field |
| DAL2703B739 · N911DQ | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 32,600 ft | 507 kt | 163 nmWNW of the field |
| FFT2582A21N · N616FR | KPBI | 29,600 ft | 486 kt | 199 nmS of the field |
| FFT1204A21N · N625FR | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 31,550 ft | 528 kt | 216 nmS of the field |
| AAL798A319 · N714US | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | 34,000 ft | 406 kt | 221 nmW of the field |
| N800TLH25B | BedfordKBED / BED | 5,675 ft | 273 kt | 230 nmNE of the field |
| FFT1328A321 · N705FR | CharlotteKCLT / CLT | 32,675 ft | 464 kt | 263 nmSW of the field |
| PDT5894E145 · N933JN | RichmondKRIC / RIC | 16,825 ft | 400 kt | 332 nmSW of the field |
| AAL2727A319 · N4032T | CharlotteKCLT / CLT | 10,850 ft | 345 kt | 380 nmSSW of the field |
| JIA5486CRJ7 · N532EA | MilwaukeeKMKE / MKE | 32,000 ft | 443 kt | 400 nmWSW of the field |
| RPA4474E75L · N440YX | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 35,000 ft | 450 kt | 420 nmWNW of the field |
| FFT4404A21N · N676FR | OrlandoKMCO / MCO | 35,050 ft | 483 kt | 464 nmSSW of the field |
| UAL1663B39M · N17591 | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 31,000 ft | 455 kt | 475 nmW of the field |
| JBU376A320 · N613JB | Fort LauderdaleKFLL / FLL | 37,000 ft | 452 kt | 493 nmSSW of the field |
| FFT2552A21N · N641FR | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 24,450 ft | 471 kt | 525 nmWSW of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 41
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAL780B788 · N883BM | NapoliLIRN / NAP | 5,775 ft | 282 kt | 10 nmSW of the field |
| PDT6020E145 · N636AE | SyracuseKSYR / SYR | 9,100 ft | 281 kt | 10 nmW of the field |
| PDT5843E145 · N669MB | RichmondKRIC / RIC | 9,025 ft | 266 kt | 38 nmW of the field |
| UPS1193A306 · N150UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 28,925 ft | 423 kt | 68 nmW of the field |
| RPA4561E170 · N865RW | HyannisKHYA / HYA | 9,525 ft | 277 kt | 85 nmNE of the field |
| AAL754B789 · N835AN | Paris (Roissy-en-France,LFPG / CDG | 24,300 ft | 486 kt | 85 nmENE of the field |
| AAL744B788 · N812AA | CopenhagenEKCH / CPH | 35,975 ft | 584 kt | 162 nmENE of the field |
| PDT6103E145 · N672AE | SyracuseKSYR / SYR | 10,450 ft | 323 kt | 168 nmNNW of the field |
| PDT5952E145 · N660CL | Knoxville/MaryvilleKTYS / TYS | 26,000 ft | 411 kt | 205 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL2936A321 · N542UW | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 35,500 ft | 405 kt | 214 nmSSW of the field |
| JIA5512CRJ9 · N547NN | MadisonKMSN / MSN | 32,000 ft | 432 kt | 228 nmWNW of the field |
| UPS1189B763 · N383UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 32,025 ft | 433 kt | 288 nmWSW of the field |
| RPA4361E75L · N116HQ | ColumbusKCMH / CMH | 14,350 ft | 344 kt | 315 nmW of the field |
| RPA4801E75L · N402YX | OmahaKOMA / OMA | 10,050 ft | 290 kt | 335 nmW of the field |
| FDX1294N251FE | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 30,025 ft | 468 kt | 338 nmWSW of the field |
| JIA5335CRJ9 · N611NN | NorfolkKORF / ORF | 30,000 ft | 423 kt | 379 nmW of the field |
| N125XPH25B | TeterboroKTEB / TEB | 30,225 ft | 410 kt | 417 nmWNW of the field |
| JIA5493CRJ9 · N613NN | AshevilleKAVL / AVL | 13,450 ft | 373 kt | 454 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL722B788 · N874AN | DublinEIDW / DUB | 40,975 ft | 589 kt | 470 nmNE of the field |
| AAL2277A319 · N755US | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 23,525 ft | 406 kt | 507 nmWSW of the field |
About Philadelphia International
- ICAO codeKPHL
- IATA codePHL
- ServesPhiladelphia
- RegionPennsylvania, United States
- Coordinates39.872°N, 75.241°W
Philadelphia International sits on the Delaware River south of the city, roughly midway along the corridor that runs from Washington to New York. That corridor carries an enormous amount of traffic in a narrow band, and Philadelphia's arrivals and departures have to be fitted into gaps between flows that are simply passing through.
Set the map to cover Washington, Philadelphia and New York together. The corridor appears as a nearly continuous line of aircraft, and this field's own traffic is the part that peels off and rejoins.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
PHL 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.
KPHL 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 Philadelphia 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:
