KSFO · SFO · San Francisco, California
Planes near SFO: live flight tracking at San Francisco International
San Francisco International (SFO / KSFO) serves San Francisco, California, United States. Built on the bay shore, and regularly rearranged by a low marine cloud layer.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around San Francisco. 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 SFO, 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 | Arrival | ASA1401 | B738 · N581AS |
| 02:56 UTC | Departure | UAL1958 | B753 · N75851 |
| 02:55 UTC | Arrival | ASA619 | B39M · N931AK |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | UAL2111 | B37M · N17272 |
| 02:53 UTC | Arrival | UAL436 | B38M · N27258 |
| 02:52 UTC | Arrival | UAL506 | B772 · N792UA |
| 02:50 UTC | Arrival | UAL939 | B789 · N81105 |
| 02:50 UTC | Departure | FFT3440 | A20N · N361FR |
| 02:49 UTC | Arrival | SKW5263 | E75L · N78361 |
| 02:49 UTC | Departure | ASA1340 | B738 · N551AS |
| 02:48 UTC | Arrival | SKW5883 | E75L · N84378 |
| 02:47 UTC | Arrival | UAL1508 | N17289 |
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 SFO. 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
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASA619B39M · N931AK | SeattleKSEA / SEA | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmWNW of the field |
| UAL2810B38M · N47330 | MiamiKMIA / MIA | on the ground | 70 kt | 0 nmE of the field |
| JBU233A321 · N961JT | BostonKBOS / BOS | on the ground | 0 kt | 1 nmSW of the field |
| UAL506B772 · N792UA | RomeLIRF / FCO | on the ground | 0 kt | 1 nmW of the field |
| UAL939B789 · N81105 | LondonEGLL / LHR | on the ground | 8 kt | 1 nmSW of the field |
| SKW3248N431SY | Santa AnaKSNA / SNA | 800 ft | 134 kt | 4 nmESE of the field |
| DAL1655A21N · N516DA | BostonKBOS / BOS | 1,750 ft | 165 kt | 7 nmESE of the field |
| UAL673B772 · N27015 | NewarkKEWR / EWR | 7,075 ft | 254 kt | 13 nmSSE of the field |
| SIA34A359 · 9V-SGB | SingaporeWSSS / SIN | 12,675 ft | 349 kt | 15 nmNW of the field |
| UAL878B77W · N2645U | Hong KongVHHH / HKG | 18,950 ft | 367 kt | 39 nmNNW of the field |
| UAL927B789 · N45956 | Frankfurt am MainEDDF / FRA | 25,475 ft | 398 kt | 59 nmNNW of the field |
| FFT1447A21N · N659FR | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 20,100 ft | 352 kt | 66 nmE of the field |
| UAL1577B39M · N17557 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 27,000 ft | 431 kt | 76 nmSSE of the field |
| DAL517B752 · N900PC | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 24,750 ft | 375 kt | 78 nmE of the field |
| ASA812A332 · N383HA | Honolulu, OahuPHNL / HNL | 37,000 ft | 531 kt | 139 nmWSW of the field |
| FFT3801A321 · N720FR | Las VegasKLAS / LAS | 30,000 ft | 366 kt | 141 nmE of the field |
| UAL2681B739 · N75432 | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 28,000 ft | 476 kt | 164 nmSSE of the field |
| AAL15A321 · N107NN | New YorkKJFK / JFK | 31,975 ft | 414 kt | 174 nmE of the field |
| UAL810B77W · N2749U | Manila (Pasay)RPLL / MNL | 33,000 ft | 508 kt | 198 nmNW of the field |
| DAL1559A21N · N591DT | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 25,350 ft | 472 kt | 215 nmSE of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 60
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UAL2111B37M · N17272 | DullesKIAD / IAD | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmSW of the field |
| ACA573BCS3 · C-GVUN | VancouverCYVR / YVR | on the ground | 8 kt | 0 nmSE of the field |
| UAL436B38M · N27258 | TorontoCYYZ / YYZ | on the ground | 9 kt | 0 nmW of the field |
| ASA591B39M · N960AK | SeattleKSEA / SEA | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmSSW of the field |
| THY9WCA359 · TC-LGY | IstanbulLTFM / IST | on the ground | 10 kt | 0 nmSE of the field |
| SWR39B77W · HB-JNH | ZurichLSZH / ZRH | 0 ft | 80 kt | 1 nmESE of the field |
| UAL930B789 · N51104 | LondonEGLL / LHR | on the ground | 2 kt | 1 nmW of the field |
| CSB405B762 · C-FOIJ | Cincinnati / CovingtonKCVG / CVG | on the ground | 9 kt | 1 nmESE of the field |
| UAL1958B753 · N75851 | Raleigh/DurhamKRDU / RDU | 4,325 ft | 258 kt | 4 nmNNE of the field |
| SKW3991E75L · N251SY | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 2,700 ft | 177 kt | 10 nmESE of the field |
| UAL1757B789 · N29978 | RenoKRNO / RNO | 6,525 ft | 252 kt | 23 nmESE of the field |
| FFT3440A20N · N361FR | DenverKDEN / DEN | 17,875 ft | 435 kt | 38 nmENE of the field |
| SWA3640B38M · N8978G | DenverKDEN / DEN | 13,400 ft | 338 kt | 44 nmSE of the field |
| ASA1340B738 · N551AS | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 20,475 ft | 417 kt | 44 nmNNE of the field |
| UAL926B789 · N35953 | Frankfurt am MainEDDF / FRA | 22,625 ft | 478 kt | 62 nmNE of the field |
| UAL368B38M · N17320 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 30,000 ft | 389 kt | 95 nmE of the field |
| UAL1809A320 · N440UA | RedmondKRDM / RDM | 28,000 ft | 471 kt | 118 nmN of the field |
| DAL2652B739 · N873DN | Salt Lake CityKSLC / SLC | 32,775 ft | 521 kt | 118 nmNE of the field |
| UAL1769B39M · N47434 | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 29,975 ft | 400 kt | 132 nmE of the field |
| ASA954A21N · N212HA | San JoseKSJC / SJC | 34,000 ft | 514 kt | 155 nmWSW of the field |
About San Francisco International
- ICAO codeKSFO
- IATA codeSFO
- ServesSan Francisco
- RegionCalifornia, United States
- Coordinates37.620°N, 122.375°W
San Francisco International sits on the western shore of the bay, south of the city, with the water on one side and hills on the other. Arrivals routinely cross the bay on the way in, which makes the approach easy to pick out on a map even without labels. Oakland and San Jose sit within the same view, and all three share the traffic that funnels into this corner of California.
The marine layer is the local variable. When low cloud pushes in through the Golden Gate the arrival rate drops, aircraft hold, and the map grows slow loops offshore that were not there in the morning.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
SFO 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.
KSFO 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 San Francisco 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:
