Flight radar: the live flight tracker for the UK

The flight radar above shows every aircraft flying over the United Kingdom right now, live and completely free. Every symbol on the map is a real aeroplane: click one and you will see the flight number, route, altitude, speed and aircraft type. Whether you are waiting for someone at arrivals or heard a jet pass overhead, the answer is on this map.

Live flight radar for the UK

On an ordinary afternoon the radar shows several hundred aircraft over the British Isles at once. Transatlantic traffic funnels in over Ireland and the Western Approaches, the airways above London are among the busiest in Europe, and in between you will spot holiday charters, cargo flights, air ambulances and the occasional military transport.

The picture is built from ADS-B, the position signal that modern aircraft broadcast continuously. Over Britain those signals are picked up by a dense network of community receivers stretching from the Scottish Highlands to the Cornish coast, which is why coverage holds up at low altitude even over the Irish Sea and the North Sea approaches. We feed that network with our own ADS-B receiving station as well. What we will not do is pad the picture: an aircraft that transmits nothing does not appear on this radar.

UK flight tracker

This is a free flight tracker UK wide. Say a jet passes low over your house and you want to know what it was: drag the map to your town, click the aircraft and read its flight number, origin and destination. The search box works from the other end: type a flight number and the map finds that aircraft wherever it happens to be between take-off and touchdown. British-registered aircraft carry registrations beginning with G, so you can also follow one particular airframe by typing its registration. Boards for the times and a map for the position: together they let you check whether an inbound aircraft has actually left its origin, watch it cross the coast, and time your drive to the terminal.

Airport arrivals and departures

The radar shows where an aircraft is; the airport boards tell you when it lands or leaves. We keep live boards for the busiest airports of the UK and Ireland:

Each airport page pairs the live board with the practical questions of that particular field: which terminal your airline uses, what the drop-off charge is, and how to reach the airport by rail. So you arrive with the times and the logistics sorted in one visit.

Track flights by airline

Waiting for someone on a specific flight? Our airline pages help you find and follow flights operated by British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, TUI, Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Emirates.

Frequently asked questions

Is this flight radar free?

Yes, all of it: the radar, the flight search and the live boards for every airport listed above. There is no account to create and no app to install, and you can leave a departures board open all afternoon without hitting a paywall. The site is funded by ordinary advertising.

Why can I not see a small aircraft on the radar?

Because it is probably not transmitting. ADS-B is standard on airliners but far from universal in Britain’s light aviation: many club aircraft, vintage aeroplanes, gliders and microlights fly without an ADS-B transponder, or with one that sends no position. A low aircraft can also sit below the horizon of the nearest receivers. So when a light aeroplane crosses your garden and the map stays empty, it is the signal that is missing, not the radar.

How do I track an easyJet flight?

Type the flight number into the search; easyJet numbers start with U2 or EZY, followed by the digits on your boarding pass. For the airline’s UK bases, fleet and busiest routes, use our dedicated easyJet flight tracker page. Ryanair flights work the same way with FR or RYR numbers, and have their own Ryanair flight tracker page.

What does squawk 7700 mean?

Squawk 7700 is the general emergency code. The crew set it to tell air traffic control that something is wrong on board, most often a medical situation or a technical fault. It usually ends in a normal, precautionary landing; it is a signal for priority, not a sign of disaster.

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