PANC · ANC · Anchorage, Alaska
Planes near ANC: live flight tracking at Ted Stevens Anchorage International
Ted Stevens Anchorage International (ANC / PANC) serves Anchorage, Alaska, United States. A high-latitude crossroads where the freighters outnumber almost everything else.
The live map
Aircraft the volunteer receiver network can currently hear around Anchorage. 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 ANC, 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 | Arrival | ASA403 | B738 · N568AS |
| 02:54 UTC | Arrival | GTI8976 | B744 · N415MC |
| 02:51 UTC | Departure | N1115M | C208 |
| 02:42 UTC | Arrival | N1733R | T206 |
| 02:42 UTC | Arrival | N62LC | DHC2 |
| 02:40 UTC | Departure | CSS199 | B744 · B-2426 |
| 02:37 UTC | Departure | CAL5311 | B77L · B-18772 |
| 02:36 UTC | Arrival | N814SS | DHC6 |
| 02:35 UTC | Arrival | N4596U | T206 |
| 02:34 UTC | Arrival | N232KT | DHC2 |
| 02:32 UTC | Departure | ASA45 | B738 · N559AS |
| 02:25 UTC | Arrival | ASA52 | B737 · N613AS |
Showing the most recent 12 of 20 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 ANC. 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 37
| Flight | From | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPA2095B748 · B-LJN | ChicagoKORD / ORD | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmSSW of the field |
| DAL928N327DU | SeattleKSEA / SEA | on the ground | 0 kt | 0 nmSSE of the field |
| GTI8976B744 · N415MC | New YorkKJFK / JFK | on the ground | 8 kt | 1 nmNW of the field |
| UAL2369B38M · N47293 | HoustonKIAH / IAH | 11,900 ft | 263 kt | 12 nmENE of the field |
| AER44B190 · N241AX | ValdezPAVD / VDZ | 6,700 ft | 220 kt | 18 nmNNE of the field |
| FDX9162B77L · N861FD | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 13,725 ft | 265 kt | 20 nmENE of the field |
| N1797RT206 | KenaiPAEN / ENA | 5,300 ft | 92 kt | 51 nmNNW of the field |
| UPS72B748 · N615UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 40,000 ft | 437 kt | 185 nmE of the field |
| N33NEPC12 | King SalmonPAKN / AKN | 20,450 ft | 258 kt | 194 nmSW of the field |
| N92AGPC12 | King SalmonPAKN / AKN | on the ground | 0 kt | 250 nmSW of the field |
| ASA225B39M · N733AL | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 32,000 ft | 397 kt | 265 nmESE of the field |
| UAL841B38M · N47281 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 34,000 ft | 385 kt | 308 nmE of the field |
| DAL931N319DU | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 34,000 ft | 400 kt | 457 nmESE of the field |
| QXE2130E75L · N656QX | KotzebuePAOT / OTZ | 5,075 ft | 286 kt | 468 nmNW of the field |
| ASA1455B39M · N725AL | PortlandKPDX / PDX | 34,000 ft | 408 kt | 552 nmESE of the field |
| ASA85B739 · N479AS | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 34,000 ft | 426 kt | 934 nmESE of the field |
| GTI8997N439GT | MiamiKMIA / MIA | 40,000 ft | 494 kt | 1,150 nmE of the field |
| KAL233B748 · HL7629 | SeoulRKSI / ICN | 35,000 ft | 500 kt | 1,275 nmE of the field |
| ASA247B38M · N814AK | SeattleKSEA / SEA | 35,000 ft | 430 kt | 1,380 nmESE of the field |
| GTI658B744 · N418MC | SeoulRKSI / ICN | 35,000 ft | 539 kt | 1,638 nmE of the field |
Outbound nearest 20 of 35
| Flight | To | Altitude | Ground speed | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KAL277B77L · HL8076 | Dallas-Fort WorthKDFW / DFW | on the ground | 9 kt | 1 nmNW of the field |
| N2714FC182 | HomerPAHO / HOM | 3,000 ft | 87 kt | 8 nmWNW of the field |
| N1115MC208 | KenaiPAEN / ENA | 4,275 ft | 115 kt | 13 nmSW of the field |
| N531LMBE20 | FairbanksPAFA / FAI | 3,275 ft | 156 kt | 15 nmNNW of the field |
| LYC408N408LC | KotzebuePAOT / OTZ | 15,450 ft | 311 kt | 52 nmNNW of the field |
| N68MNBE20 | FairbanksPAFA / FAI | 2,375 ft | 139 kt | 54 nmSW of the field |
| DAL416B763 · N196DN | AtlantaKATL / ATL | 28,175 ft | 381 kt | 60 nmE of the field |
| UAL450N17358 | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 36,000 ft | 390 kt | 120 nmE of the field |
| CAL5311B77L · B-18772 | TaoyuanRCTP / TPE | 32,000 ft | 427 kt | 124 nmW of the field |
| FDX5388B77L · N848FD | OsakaRJBB / KIX | 38,000 ft | 410 kt | 185 nmSE of the field |
| CKS981B744 · N740CK | Los AngelesKLAX / LAX | 37,000 ft | 544 kt | 315 nmW of the field |
| GTI8609B77L · N704GT | New YorkKJFK / JFK | 31,000 ft | 560 kt | 328 nmESE of the field |
| N558LMLJ45 | FairbanksPAFA / FAI | 43,000 ft | 416 kt | 366 nmESE of the field |
| KYE9724B744 · N904AR | ChicagoKORD / ORD | 33,000 ft | 543 kt | 444 nmESE of the field |
| N254PVPC24 | FairbanksPAFA / FAI | 41,000 ft | 462 kt | 556 nmESE of the field |
| FDX5601B77L · N852FD | MemphisKMEM / MEM | 35,000 ft | 496 kt | 1,216 nmE of the field |
| UPS81B748 · N613UP | OntarioKONT / ONT | 37,000 ft | 0 kt | 1,249 nmSE of the field |
| UAL1959B38M · N27256 | DenverKDEN / DEN | 35,000 ft | 460 kt | 1,325 nmESE of the field |
| UPS59B744 · N575UP | OntarioKONT / ONT | 35,000 ft | 485 kt | 1,442 nmSE of the field |
| UPS77B748 · N633UP | LouisvilleKSDF / SDF | 33,000 ft | 524 kt | 1,544 nmE of the field |
About Ted Stevens Anchorage International
- ICAO codePANC
- IATA codeANC
- ServesAnchorage
- RegionAlaska, United States
- Coordinates61.179°N, 149.993°W
Ted Stevens Anchorage International sits at the head of Cook Inlet with the Chugach mountains behind it. Its position matters more than its size: great-circle routes between North America and East Asia pass close by, which makes this a natural technical stop for freight, and the aircraft on the ground here are frequently very large ones a long way from home. Alaska's own bush and floatplane traffic works the same airspace at much lower level.
The latitude does strange things to the map. In midwinter the field runs most of its day in darkness and in midsummer barely any of it, and the great-circle tracks overhead look wildly curved on a flat projection despite being the shortest way to go.
What the codes mean
Airports carry two identifiers and they are not interchangeable.
ANC 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.
PANC is the ICAO code: four letters, used by air traffic
control, flight planning systems and trackers like this one. Its first
two letters, PA, marks
Alaska, 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 Anchorage 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:
