PlanesLive Scraper

Scrapes live and historical flight data from PlanesLive, serving as a FlightRadar24 alternative. Outputs structured data (JSON/CSV) for analytics, dashboards, or integration into other applications.

Overview

This actor fetches flight data based on routes, specific flight codes, or geographic proximity. It's designed for building aviation dashboards, monitoring routes, analyzing flight patterns, or powering logistics and travel applications. Data is saved to an Apify dataset for easy download.

Key Features

• Multiple Search Modes:
  • Route: Search by origin and destination airport codes (IATA, e.g., JFK, LAX).
  • Flight: Search by specific flight codes (e.g., AAL123).
  • Nearby: Find flights within a specified radius (50-300 km) of given coordinates.
• Historical Queries: Optionally provide dates for past flight data (not available for Nearby searches).
• Controlled Output: Set a maxItems limit to manage result size.
• Structured Data: Outputs consistent JSON/CSV with comprehensive flight details.

How to Use

1. Add the actor to your Apify account.
2. Configure the input (see Input Parameters below).
3. Run the actor. Results will be available in the Dataset tab.

Tip: For best reliability, use the Apify Residential proxy via the proxyConfiguration input.

Input Parameters

Provide input as a JSON object. You must include at least one of these parameter groups: origins/destinations, flights, or coordinates.

Rules:
* origins and destinations must be provided together.
* Nearby search requires coordinates.

Example Inputs

Route Search (JFK to SFO):

{
  "maxItems": 100,
  "origins": ["JFK"],
  "destinations": ["SFO"],
  "dates": ["2025-09-20", "2025-09-21"],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Flight Code Search:

{
  "maxItems": 50,
  "flights": ["LY2", "AAL92"],
  "dates": ["2025-09-21"]
}

Nearby Search (100km from coordinates):

{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "coordinates": ["40.641766,-73.780968"],
  "distance": "100"
}

Output

The actor saves each flight as a separate item in the dataset. Output fields vary but typically include:

• Flight identifiers: id, icao, iata, status
• Aircraft details: registration, model, manufacturer, photo URL
• Route info: origin, destination, airline codes and logos
• Schedule: departure, arrival (scheduled/actual), terminals
• Flight data: route_time, waypoints, positions
• Optional: seats, meals, shared_codes

Sample Output (abbreviated):

{
  "id": "98661756-22d7-4e5d-bcd9-a4bae2b3fbec",
  "icao": "ELY2",
  "iata": "LY2",
  "status": 3,
  "aircraft": {
    "regno": "4XEDI",
    "icao": "B789",
    "manufacturer": "Boeing",
    "model": "B789"
  },
  "airline_icao": "ELY",
  "origin": { "iata": "TLV", "name": "Ben Gurion" },
  "destination": { "iata": "JFK", "name": "John F Kennedy" }
}