fr24

fr24 is a Python library for data retrieval from Flightradar24 using gRPC and JSON APIs.

For a detailed quickstart, examples and references, please refer to the documentation.

Features

fr24 supports the following endpoints:

Endpoint	Description	Type
Live Feed	Current real-time flight data within a bounding box.	gRPC
Live Feed Playback	Historical snapshot of live feed data for a specific time.	gRPC
Flight List	List of flights based on registration or flight number.	JSON
Playback	Historical state vectors data for a flight.	JSON
Airport Arrivals	Aircraft arrival information for a given airport.	JSON
Airport Search	Search for airports by keyword.	JSON
Nearest Flights	Real-time flight data for aircraft within a given radius.	gRPC
Follow Flight (streaming)	Historical track and real-time updates for a live flight.	gRPC
Top Flights	List of the most viewed flights.	gRPC
Live Flight Status	Real-time status updates for live flights.	gRPC

fr24 is built with modularity and performance in mind, utilising asynchronous programming to handle concurrent requests efficiently.

Installation

For the latest stable version:

pip install fr24

For a development version, clone the repository and run in the directory:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync --all-extras --all-groups

This installs all optional dependencies, typing, linting, testing and documentation tools.

Examples

Fetch live feed data for a specific bounding box:

import asyncio

from fr24 import FR24


async def main() -> None:
    async with FR24() as client:
        result = await client.live_feed.fetch()
        print(result.response.content)  # access raw, undecoded bytes
        # convert to other formats:
        print(result.to_proto())  # protobuf object
        print(result.to_dict())  # nested dictionary
        print(result.to_polars())  # polars dataframe

        # write to a parquet file:
        result.write_table("feed.parquet")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

To improve efficiency and reduce API calls, fr24 provides a simple file-based cache:

import asyncio

from fr24 import FR24, FR24Cache

cache = FR24Cache.default()

async def main() -> None:
    async with FR24() as client:
        result = await client.live_feed.fetch()
        # on Linux, this writes to ~/.cache/fr24/feed/{timestamp_s}.parquet
        result.write_table(cache)

def some_time_later() -> None:
    for fp in cache.live_feed.glob("*"):
        print(fp)
        print(cache.live_feed.scan_table(fp).collect())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())
    some_time_later()

fr24 also comes with a CLI for quick data retrieval:

$ fr24 feed -o feed.parquet
$ duckdb -c "describe select * from 'feed.parquet'";
┌─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│   column_name   │                            column_type                            │  null   │   key   │ default │  extra  │
│     varchar     │                              varchar                              │ varchar │ varchar │ varchar │ varchar │
├─────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤
│ timestamp       │ UINTEGER                                                          │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ flightid        │ UINTEGER                                                          │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ latitude        │ FLOAT                                                             │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ longitude       │ FLOAT                                                             │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ track           │ USMALLINT                                                         │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ altitude        │ INTEGER                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ ground_speed    │ SMALLINT                                                          │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ on_ground       │ BOOLEAN                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ callsign        │ VARCHAR                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ source          │ UTINYINT                                                          │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ registration    │ VARCHAR                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ origin          │ VARCHAR                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ destination     │ VARCHAR                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ typecode        │ VARCHAR                                                           │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ eta             │ UINTEGER                                                          │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ vertical_speed  │ SMALLINT                                                          │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ squawk          │ USMALLINT                                                         │ YES     │         │         │         │
│ position_buffer │ STRUCT(delta_lat INTEGER, delta_lon INTEGER, delta_ms UINTEGER)[] │ YES     │         │         │         │
├─────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┤
│ 18 rows                                                                                                           6 columns │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

For a full list of commands and options, run:

fr24 --help

fr24 also comes with a TUI - search for flights directly in your terminal:

fr24 tui

Disclaimer

[!IMPORTANT]
Code has been developed for educational purposes ONLY. Do not abuse it.

{
  "copyright": "Copyright (c) 2014-2025 Flightradar24 AB. All rights reserved.",
  "legalNotice": "The contents of this file and all derived data are the property of Flightradar24 AB for use exclusively by its products and applications. Using, modifying or redistributing the data without the prior written permission of Flightradar24 AB is not allowed and may result in prosecutions."
}

Official Flightradar24 API: https://fr24api.flightradar24.com/