In 2009, three years after we installed the first ADS-B receiver on a roof in Stockholm, Sweden, we opened the Flightradar24 network, making it possible for anyone with an ADS-B receiver to share data. We quickly added coverage all over Europe and began to expand outward. In late 2010, we published our first global coverage snapshot.
Our coverage growth would not be possible without our committed receiver hosts and those sharing ADS-B data with our network. Thank you all! To put that growth into perspective, on 1 May 2011 at 12:00 UTC we tracked 1554 flights. Today at the same time we were tracking more than 12,000.
Coverage Growth
In December 2010 we had coverage over much of Europe and in pockets in the Middle East, Brazil, and the United States.
Flightradar24 coverage, December 2010
By mid-2011 we added coverage in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and China and expanded our European coverage.
Flightradar24 coverage May 2011
Over the next year, through July 2012, we expanded our coverage area to Japan, southwestern Russia, Chile, western Australia, South Africa, India, Kazakhstan and increased our coverage elsewhere.
Flightradar24 coverage July 2012
By February 2013, we had multiple receivers in Greenland, expanded our coverage in India, Thailand, Russia, Brazil, and the US east and west coasts, as well as added coverage in the Caribbean.
Flightradar24 coverage February 2013
As of January 2014 we greatly increased our coverage in the United States and Canada with access to North American radar data. We also continued to add coverage in South America, especially in Brazil. South Africa, southeast Asia, India, Australia, Eastern China, and Japan also saw tremendous increases in coverage. All the while we continued to add receivers in Europe to add coverage at lower altitudes.
Flightradar24 coverage January 2014
A year later in February 2015, our coverage had grown in South America, expanding in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile, especially. Our coverage in Mexico grew significantly, as did our ADS-B and MLAT coverage in the United States and Canada. Our coverage in Russia expanded east and north covering many more flights between Europe and east Asia. We also installed our first receiver in Antarctica in December 2015.
Flightradar24 coverage February 2015
Today, we’re continuing to expand our coverage area, pushing north and south with new receivers in places like Yellowknife and Resolute in Canada and Ushuaia in Argentina. We’re also working hard to expand our transoceanic coverage with new receivers on a number of islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We’re also testing space-based ADS-B reception using nano-satellites, like the Gomspace GOMX-3.
Flightradar24 coverage August 2016
The Future
In the coming year, we’ll continue to add terrestrial receivers and explore new and exciting ways to track additional flights. Stay tuned for more soon!
We are always looking for new receiver hosts. Especially if you or someone you know lives in a remote location, please apply to host a receiver. All of our receiver hosts get a free Flightradar24 Business Subscription. If you’re interested, please apply today. If you’d you like more information about our application process, you can read more about it in our blog post.
If you prefer to use your own hardware and have a Raspberry Pi you can now help us increase MLAT coverage as well. Please see our Raspberry Pi page for more information and to begin sharing data today.
The Flightradar24 coverage evolution