Why don all flight trackers provide the same information?
To be useful to travelers and family members, flight trackers often have to fill in some of the gaps in the government-supplied data – gate times, for example. There are other variables to consider as well. There is typically, but not always, a message sent to air traffic control upon departure. In cases where that message is not sent, a flight tracker needs to be able to estimate the actual departure time. The same goes for arrival times. The estimation methods used by the various flight trackers vary causing discrepancies in the information they provide.
To be useful to travellers and family members, flight trackers often have to fill in some of the gaps in the data from government sources, gate times, for example. There are other variables to consider. There is typically, but not always, a message sent to an air traffic control centre on departure. In the cases where that message is not sent, a flight tracker needs to make a best guess about the actual departure time. The same goes for arrival times. The methods that the various flight trackers use to guess vary – causing discrepancies in information provided by different flight tracker tools.
