KTPA · TPA · Tampa, Florida
Planes near TPA: live flight tracking at Tampa International
Tampa International (TPA / KTPA) serves Tampa, Florida, United States. On the bay, and squarely under the daily summer sea-breeze thunderstorms.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Tampa. 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 TPA, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:55 UTC | Arrival | N149AH | EC45 |
| 02:53 UTC | Departure | MXY157 | BCS3 · N228BZ |
| 02:48 UTC | Arrival | DAL2433 | B738 · N385DN |
| 02:46 UTC | Arrival | N508KD | C560 |
| 02:44 UTC | Arrival | N46JM | PRM1 |
| 02:43 UTC | Arrival | SWA3019 | B738 · N8669B |
| 02:40 UTC | Arrival | AAL1052 | A319 · N817AW |
| 02:39 UTC | Departure | SKQ91 | PC12 · N5904A |
| 02:34 UTC | Departure | SWA130 | B737 · N7886A |
| 02:32 UTC | Arrival | PD8 | B06 · N610TP |
| 02:30 UTC | Departure | JBU26 | BCS3 · N3113J |
| 02:22 UTC | Arrival | AAL2022 | A321 · N132AN |
Showing the most recent 12 of 13 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 TPA. 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 30
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N512TPB407 | KTPF | 2,175 ft | 88 kt | 5 nmENE of the field |
| AAL2256B738 · N819NN | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | 1,900 ft | 149 kt | 7 nmS of the field |
| MXY157BCS3 · N228BZ | Greenville/Greer/SpartanKGSP / GSP | 10,250 ft | 290 kt | 7 nmNW of the field |
| FFT3355A20N · N434FR | IslipKISP / ISP | 6,600 ft | 269 kt | 8 nmNE of the field |
| SKQ91PC12 · N5904A | MiamiKOPF / OPF | 14,875 ft | 246 kt | 54 nmSSE of the field |
| MXY173BCS3 · N261BZ | Myrtle BeachKMYR / MYR | 29,925 ft | 461 kt | 109 nmN of the field |
| UAL1312B739 · N32404 | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 33,000 ft | 439 kt | 175 nmW of the field |
| AAL2322B738 · N963AN | PhiladelphiaKPHL / PHL | 39,000 ft | 428 kt | 184 nmNNW of the field |
| FFT2269A21N · N658FR | PhiladelphiaKPHL / PHL | 29,000 ft | 380 kt | 259 nmNNW of the field |
| MXY137N247BZ | SyracuseKSYR / SYR | 38,000 ft | 403 kt | 455 nmNNE of the field |
| MXY2135N240BZ | Raleigh/DurhamKRDU / RDU | on the ground | 0 kt | 511 nmNNE of the field |
| JBU2725A320 · N662JB | New YorkKJFK / JFK | 36,000 ft | 423 kt | 532 nmNNE of the field |
| DAL2385B752 · N6709 | MinneapolisKMSP / MSP | 39,000 ft | 487 kt | 549 nmNNW of the field |
| DAL2404B739 · N907DN | New YorkKLGA / LGA | 34,000 ft | 413 kt | 565 nmNNE of the field |
| AAL889B738 · N814NN | CharlotteKCLT / CLT | 17,625 ft | 388 kt | 630 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL2772B738 · N983NN | PhoenixKPHX / PHX | 36,025 ft | 447 kt | 686 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL544A320 · N126UW | WashingtonKDCA / DCA | on the ground | 2 kt | 708 nmNNE of the field |
| ENY3825E75L · N215NN | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 17,650 ft | 379 kt | 768 nmWNW of the field |
| SWA4511B738 · N8527Q | San DiegoKSAN / SAN | 28,000 ft | 467 kt | 788 nmWNW of the field |
| AAL2775A321 · N568UW | WashingtonKDCA / DCA | 825 ft | 176 kt | 807 nmWNW of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 31
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWA4033B38M · N8774Q | ChicagoKMDW / MDW | 40,000 ft | 454 kt | 31 nmW of the field |
| UAL2801A21N · N34547 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 15,425 ft | 356 kt | 71 nmNNE of the field |
| TCF652N652FT | MelbourneKMLB / MLB | -25 ft | 66 kt | 99 nmE of the field |
| JBU26BCS3 · N3113J | New YorkKJFK / JFK | 32,600 ft | 459 kt | 160 nmENE of the field |
| N75WHPC12 | LakelandKLAL / LAL | 26,000 ft | 247 kt | 210 nmNNE of the field |
| DAL2095B739 · N807DN | New YorkKJFK / JFK | 32,500 ft | 480 kt | 341 nmNE of the field |
| FFT2184A20N · N385FR | ClevelandKCLE / CLE | 39,000 ft | 497 kt | 364 nmN of the field |
| JBU592A320 · N561JB | BostonKBOS / BOS | 33,025 ft | 497 kt | 433 nmNE of the field |
| FDX2210B763 · N270FE | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 35,275 ft | 473 kt | 454 nmNNW of the field |
| SWA4005B737 · N967WN | NashvilleKBNA / BNA | 41,000 ft | 465 kt | 515 nmNW of the field |
| UPS7826B763 · N317UP | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 3,625 ft | 275 kt | 551 nmNW of the field |
| UPS1337B763 · N376UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 8,225 ft | 276 kt | 608 nmNNW of the field |
| N646TXC56X | MiamiKOPF / OPF | 40,000 ft | 401 kt | 615 nmN of the field |
| SWA3997B38M · N9015R | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 4,500 ft | 272 kt | 635 nmNW of the field |
| VIR130CA339 · G-VTOM | LondonEGLL / LHR | 39,000 ft | 536 kt | 716 nmNNE of the field |
| DAL236A339 · N439DX | AmsterdamEHAM / AMS | 37,000 ft | 552 kt | 735 nmNNE of the field |
| SWA4001B738 · N8574Z | AustinKAUS / AUS | 37,550 ft | 386 kt | 832 nmNNE of the field |
| ROU1661A319 · C-FYJG | TorontoCYYZ / YYZ | 33,000 ft | 429 kt | 836 nmN of the field |
| SWA4035B737 · N7835A | ChicagoKMDW / MDW | 7,975 ft | 244 kt | 859 nmWNW of the field |
| SWA4251B38M · N8956Q | BaltimoreKBWI / BWI | 34,000 ft | 429 kt | 931 nmN of the field |
About Tampa International
- ICAO codeKTPA
- IATA codeTPA
- ServesTampa
- RegionFlorida, United States
- Coordinates27.976°N, 82.533°W
Tampa International sits on Tampa Bay, west of downtown, with the Gulf a short distance further. Like the rest of central Florida it lives under a summer routine of sea-breeze convection that builds inland through the afternoon and collapses in the evening. Outside that season it is one of the calmer large fields in the southeast.
The Gulf side of the map is worth a look. Traffic tracking over water toward Mexico and Central America passes here, and coverage over the Gulf is thinner than over land, so contacts fade sooner than you might expect.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
TPA 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.
KTPA 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 Tampa 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:
