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How automatic flight tracking works

How live tracking works, how ADS-B fills in times for other airlines, and what stays manual.

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Live Tracking & Live Activities
Updated 2026-08-09 · 2 min read

Automatic tracking works in two tiers. Some airlines get full live tracking: off-blocks to on-blocks, straight from the airline’s own operational feed. Every other airline gets a broader auto-fill tier that fills in most of your times shortly after you log the flight. Either way, Jetlog is a complete, EASA-format logbook, and manual entry always works.

Live tracking: which airlines

For live-tracked airlines, off-blocks, takeoff, touchdown, on-blocks, and the aircraft registration fill in automatically as the flight progresses, each carrying scheduled, estimated, and actual values. The data comes from the same feed (ACARS) the airline’s own systems use. See Logging your first flight for what those fields mean.

Check Supported Airlines for the current list.

Coverage gaps happen: a few live-tracked airlines are tracked from their home base but not from every outstation. Check Supported Airlines before assuming full-network coverage, and enter untracked legs by hand.

One airport also publishes ramp data (CTOT, TOBT, TSAT), the same slot-management figures ground control works with, for every airline departing it. This applies to departures only, not arrivals or other airports. See Supported Airlines for which airport.

What never reaches you

Live tracking is deliberately narrow: gate, terminal, pier, baggage-belt, and arrival-runway information are never part of it. If it isn’t off-blocks, takeoff, touchdown, on-blocks, ramp timing, or aircraft registration, it isn’t coming through. That’s by design, not a missing feature.

Automatic time filling for every other airline: ADS-B

Fly for an airline that isn’t live-tracked, and Jetlog still fills in your times automatically: off-blocks, takeoff, touchdown, on-blocks, plus aircraft type and registration, drawn from a global ADS-B flight-data network and matched against flights logged around their departure time. It isn’t live, lock-screen tracking (times typically fill in shortly after you log the flight, not the instant each event happens), but it covers the large majority of scheduled airline flights worldwide. It’s included in your subscription, with a generous monthly allotment of look-ups.

Where a flight has both sources, the ACARS report from the aircraft wins over the ADS-B times, though it can arrive a few minutes later.

A few things worth knowing:

  • Ferry flights, training flights, and very uncommon or small operators may not find a match.
  • Data quality varies by region: busier routes and major carriers match more reliably than a thin regional network.
  • Manual entry always works, for any flight this tier doesn’t catch.

A separate feature: roster import

Connect the ICS crew calendar your airline publishes and Jetlog creates and schedules entries from your published roster (useful for planning). It’s not the same as live tracking and doesn’t carry times through mid-flight. Two airlines on the board have a dedicated, purpose-built import (marked on Supported Airlines); for every other airline the ICS import works today and gets better with real rosters. Send a sample to support@jetlog.app. European airlines are prioritized first. See Supported Airlines for the full coverage board.

Next

See what live tracking looks like on your phone in Live Activities on your lock screen, or read When times arrive late or look wrong for what to do if a time seems off.

Your next flight can log itself.

Everything free for 3 months, then €2.99/month or €29.99/year. Download Jetlog and fly. The times take care of themselves.