ADS-B Aircraft Tracking

Get live aircraft positions, filter them for your map viewport, and check the ADS-B feed health. ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) is the transponder signal broadcasting aircraft identity and position. Each live record includes ICAO24 (6-character hex code uniquely identifying an aircraft's transponder, e.g. 0A0022), position, barometric altitude (altitude measured by the aircraft's pressure altimeter, in feet MSL), ground speed, track (compass heading the aircraft is flying over the ground, in degrees true), and vertical rate (rate of climb or descent in feet per minute).

Data refreshes every few seconds. Pagination is opt-in: omit limit to receive the full matched set (use filters to bound size), or pass limit and offset to page through large result sets. For static registry details on a hex address, chain to Aircraft Lookup. For historical tracks, see Historical ADS-B.

Live aircraft

Returns currently tracked aircraft with latest position and flight data. Each record includes position, altitude, ground speed, track, vertical rate, and enrichment fields when available.

Request

Filter combination rules — the most common source of 422 errors:

Combine altitude and speed filters to isolate en-route traffic.

Important: photos defaults to false. Setting photos=true is slower and caps at 50 aircraft per page — enable only for detail views, not map tiles or high-frequency polling.

Response

{
  "aircraft": [
    {
      "icao24": "0A0022",
      "callsign": "DAH2055",
      "latitude": 51.274109,
      "longitude": -0.675964,
      "altitude": 9075.0,
      "ground_speed": 298.3,
      "track": 153.09,
      "vertical_rate": 2880.0,
      "is_on_ground": false,
      "last_seen": "2026-06-16T14:21:45.674566",
      "first_seen": "2026-06-16T14:17:09.312068",
      "registration": "7T-VJP",
      "aircraft_type": "Boeing B738",
      "airline": "Air Algerie",
      "photo_url": null
    }
  ],
  "total_count": 67,
  "timestamp": "2026-06-16T14:21:49.178448"
}

Aircraft item (aircraft[])

Enrichment fields (registration, aircraft_type, airline) may be null when the hex address is not in the registry or the feed lacks a callsign link.

curl -X GET "https://data.skylinkapi.com/v3.1/adsb/aircraft"

{
  "aircraft": [
    {
      "icao24": "40621D",
      "callsign": "BAW123",
      "latitude": 51.4706,
      "longitude": -0.4619,
      "altitude": 35000,
      "ground_speed": 450.5,
      "track": 89.2,
      "vertical_rate": 0,
      "is_on_ground": false,
      "last_seen": "2026-02-11T12:00:00Z",
      "first_seen": "2026-02-11T11:45:00Z",
      "registration": "G-STBC",
      "aircraft_type": "Boeing 777-36N",
      "airline": "British Airways",
      "photo_url": "https://image.airport-data.com/aircraft/001912010.jpg"
    }
  ],
  "total_count": 4691,
  "timestamp": "2026-02-11T12:00:30Z"
}

{
  "error": "string",
  "detail": "string",
  "timestamp": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

{
  "detail": [
    {
      "loc": [
        "string"
      ],
      "msg": "string",
      "type": "string",
      "input": null,
      "ctx": {}
    }
  ]
}

{
  "error": "string",
  "detail": "string",
  "timestamp": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

Tracking statistics

Aggregate statistics about the currently tracked fleet — total aircraft, on-ground vs airborne counts, and altitude summary. No parameters required. Useful for monitoring dashboards.

Request

No query or path parameters.

Response

{
  "total_aircraft": 9889,
  "positioned_aircraft": 9889,
  "on_ground": 412,
  "airborne": 9477,
  "altitude_stats": {
    "min_altitude": 100.0,
    "max_altitude": 56600.0,
    "avg_altitude": 21338.04
  },
  "timestamp": "2026-06-16T14:21:50.116343"
}

curl -X GET "https://data.skylinkapi.com/v3.1/adsb/aircraft/statistics"

{}

{
  "error": "string",
  "detail": "string",
  "timestamp": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

{
  "error": "string",
  "detail": "string",
  "timestamp": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

Service health

Returns ADS-B connection status and active aircraft count. Use for uptime monitoring and pre-flight checks before polling the live feed.

Request

No query or path parameters.

Response

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "connected": true,
  "active_aircraft_count": 9889,
  "connection_uptime": null,
  "last_message_received": "2026-06-16T14:21:46.212802"
}

curl -X GET "https://data.skylinkapi.com/v3.1/adsb/health"

{
  "status": "string",
  "connected": true,
  "active_aircraft_count": 0,
  "connection_uptime": 0,
  "last_message_received": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

{
  "error": "string",
  "detail": "string",
  "timestamp": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

{
  "error": "string",
  "detail": "string",
  "timestamp": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z"
}

Client types

"""ADS-B live aircraft models for GET /adsb/aircraft."""from __future__ import annotationsfrom dataclasses import dataclass@dataclassclass AdsbAircraft:    icao24: str    callsign: str | None    latitude: float | None    longitude: float | None    altitude: float | None    ground_speed: float | None    track: float | None    vertical_rate: float | None    is_on_ground: bool | None    last_seen: str    first_seen: str    registration: str | None    aircraft_type: str | None    airline: str | None    photo_url: str | None@dataclassclass AdsbAircraftListResponse:    aircraft: list[AdsbAircraft]    total_count: int    timestamp: str | None@dataclassclass MapMarker:    """Compact model for map overlays."""    icao24: str    label: str    lat: float    lon: float    altitude_ft: float | None    on_ground: bool

Integration

Poll live aircraft near an airport for a traffic map overlay.

The example below requests a radius search with a page limit, uses short timeouts (10 s / 15 s), and maps results to map markers. Do not cache live positions — poll every 5–15 seconds depending on your quota and UX needs.

import osfrom dataclasses import dataclassimport requestsHEADERS = {    "x-api-key": os.getenv("SKYLINK_API_KEY", "YOUR_API_KEY")}BASE = "https://data.skylinkapi.com/v3.1"@dataclassclass MapMarker:    icao24: str    label: str    lat: float    lon: float    altitude_ft: float | None    on_ground: booldef fetch_aircraft_near(    *,    lat: float,    lon: float,    radius_km: float = 50,    limit: int = 100,) -> dict:    """Fetch live ADS-B aircraft within a radius. Do not cache - data is ephemeral."""    try:        r = requests.get(            f"{BASE}/adsb/aircraft",            headers=HEADERS,            params={                "lat": lat,                "lon": lon,                "radius": radius_km,                "limit": limit,                "photos": False,            },            timeout=(10, 15),        )    except requests.Timeout as exc:        raise RuntimeError("SkyLink timeout fetching ADS-B aircraft") from exc    r.raise_for_status()    return r.json()def to_map_markers(payload: dict) -> list[MapMarker]:    markers: list[MapMarker] = []    for ac in payload.get("aircraft", []):        lat = ac.get("latitude")        lon = ac.get("longitude")        if lat is None or lon is None:            continue        label = ac.get("callsign") or ac.get("registration") or ac["icao24"]        markers.append(            MapMarker(                icao24=ac["icao24"],                label=label,                lat=float(lat),                lon=float(lon),                altitude_ft=ac.get("altitude"),                on_ground=bool(ac.get("is_on_ground")),            )        )    return markersif __name__ == "__main__":    import json    payload = fetch_aircraft_near(lat=40.6413, lon=-73.7781, radius_km=80, limit=5)    print(json.dumps(payload, indent=2, default=str))

Implementation notes

Polling interval. ADS-B data updates every few seconds. Polling faster than ~5 s rarely improves freshness and consumes quota quickly.

Bounding queries. Always pass lat/lon/radius or bbox for map views — unfiltered global queries can return very large payloads.

Pagination. Use limit + offset when rendering tables. total_count reflects the current page size, not the global fleet count.

Enrichment gaps. registration and aircraft_type may be null for military, blocked, or unregistered hex codes. Fall back to callsign and ICAO24 display.

Live → performance chain. aircraft_type on the live feed is often a marketing string (e.g. "Boeing B738"), not an ICAO designator. To fetch Aircraft Performance, call Aircraft Lookup with icao24 and use aircraft.icao_type from the registry response.

ICAO24 normalization. Accept 6-character hex from ADS-B feeds; uppercase and lowercase are equivalent. Pad short addresses with leading zeros when your source omits them.

Error responses

For shared platform errors (auth, rate limits, server errors), see Error Handling. Endpoint-specific behavior:

404 — ICAO24 filter not found (live aircraft)

When filtering by icao24 and no aircraft matches:

{
  "error": "Aircraft not found",
  "detail": "No aircraft found with ICAO24 000000",
  "timestamp": "2026-06-16T14:00:00Z"
}

Only applies when icao24 is provided as a filter — not for empty radius searches.

422 — invalid filter combination

{
  "detail": [
    {
      "type": "greater_than",
      "loc": ["query", "radius"],
      "msg": "Input should be greater than 0"
    }
  ]
}

Occurs when numeric filters are out of range (for example radius ≤ 0 or altitude outside 0–60000 ft), or when circle and bbox parameters are mixed.

Related: Aircraft Lookup · Historical ADS-B · Flight Status