Examples

This page provides usage examples to help you get the most out of Pyfr24.

Basic data retrieval

Getting flight tracks

from pyfr24 import FR24API

api = FR24API("your_api_token")

# Get flight tracks by ID
tracks = api.get_flight_tracks("39bebe6e")
print(f"Found {len(tracks)} track points")

# Print the first track point
if tracks:
    print(tracks[0])

Finding live flights

from pyfr24 import FR24API

api = FR24API("your_api_token")

# Find live flights for an aircraft registration
flights = api.get_live_flights_by_registration("N12345")
for flight in flights.get("data", []):
    print(f"Flight {flight.get('callsign')} at position: {flight.get('lat')}, {flight.get('lon')}")

Data export examples

Export with custom settings

from pyfr24 import FR24API

api = FR24API("your_api_token")

# Export with custom background and orientation
output_dir = api.export_flight_data(
    "39bebe6e",
    background='osm',        # OpenStreetMap
    orientation='vertical',  # 9:16 aspect ratio
    output_dir="custom_export"
)

print(f"Data exported to {output_dir}")

Batch export multiple flights

import os
from pyfr24 import FR24API

api = FR24API("your_api_token")

# List of flight IDs to export
flight_ids = ["39bebe6e", "39a84c3c", "39b845d8"]

for flight_id in flight_ids:
    try:
        output_dir = api.export_flight_data(
            flight_id,
            output_dir=f"batch_export/{flight_id}"
        )
        print(f"Exported {flight_id} to {output_dir}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error exporting {flight_id}: {e}")

Case Study: Incident Investigation

This example demonstrates how to investigate flight incidents by retrieving and comparing flight data. It shows how to: - Retrieve flight summaries for multiple flights - Extract internal FR24 IDs - Export detailed flight track data - Save investigation results

Implementation

import os
import json
import logging
from pyfr24 import FR24API, configure_logging

# Configure logging
configure_logging(level=logging.INFO, log_file="investigation.log")

def investigate_incident(api, flight_ids, date_from, date_to):
    """
    Investigate multiple flights within a specified time window.

    Args:
        api: FR24API instance
        flight_ids: List of flight numbers or callsigns
        date_from: Start date in ISO format
        date_to: End date in ISO format

    Returns:
        Dictionary mapping flight IDs to investigation results containing:
        - Internal FR24 ID
        - Summary details
        - Export directory path
    """
    results = {}
    for fid in flight_ids:
        print(f"\nProcessing flight: {fid}")
        try:
            summary = api.get_flight_summary_full(
                flights=fid, 
                flight_datetime_from=date_from, 
                flight_datetime_to=date_to
            )
            print(f"Summary for {fid}:")
            print(json.dumps(summary, indent=2))
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error fetching summary for {fid}: {e}")
            continue

        data = summary.get("data", [])
        if not data:
            print(f"No summary data returned for flight {fid}")
            continue

        results[fid] = []
        # Process each summary entry
        for entry in data:
            internal_id = entry.get("fr24_id")
            if not internal_id:
                print(f"No fr24_id found in summary entry: {entry}")
                continue
            try:
                # Create an output directory named using both identifiers
                export_dir = api.export_flight_data(internal_id, output_dir=f"data/{fid}_{internal_id}")
                print(f"Flight tracks for {fid} (internal id: {internal_id}) exported to: {export_dir}")
                results[fid].append({
                    "fr24_id": internal_id,
                    "summary": entry,
                    "export_dir": export_dir
                })
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Error exporting flight tracks for {fid} (internal id: {internal_id}): {e}")
    return results

if __name__ == "__main__":
    token = os.environ.get("FLIGHTRADAR_API_KEY")
    if not token:
        raise ValueError("FLIGHTRADAR_API_KEY environment variable not set.")

    api = FR24API(token)

    # Flight numbers/callsigns from the scenario
    flight_ids = ["DL2983", "DO61", "AA5308"]
    # Define a time window covering the incident
    date_from = "2025-03-28T12:15:01Z"
    date_to   = "2025-03-28T23:18:01Z"

    results = investigate_incident(api, flight_ids, date_from, date_to)
    print("\nInvestigation results:")
    print(json.dumps(results, indent=2))

    # Save the investigation results to a JSON file
    with open("investigation_results.json", "w") as f:
        json.dump(results, f, indent=2)

Usage Example

To run this investigation:

1. Set your Flightradar24 API key:

   export FLIGHTRADAR_API_KEY="your_api_token"
   

2. Run the script:

   python incident_investigation.py
   

3. Check the output:

4. Investigation results are saved to investigation_results.json
5. Flight track data is exported to individual directories
6. Logs are written to investigation.log

Basic data collection

This example shows how to retrieve and save flight information using the CLI.

Using the CLI directly

#!/bin/bash

# Set your token as an environment variable
export FLIGHTRADAR_API_KEY="your_api_token"

# Create output directory
mkdir -p data

# Get flight summary for a specific flight
# Date format: YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ
pyfr24 flight-summary --flight BA123 --from-date "2023-01-01" --to-date "2023-01-01"

# The CLI automatically converts dates to ISO format:
# - "2023-01-01" becomes "2023-01-01T00:00:00Z" (start of day)
# - "2023-01-01" becomes "2023-01-01T23:59:59Z" (end of day)

# You can also specify exact times:
pyfr24 flight-summary --flight BA123 --from-date "2023-01-01T12:00:00Z" --to-date "2023-01-01T15:00:00Z"

Usage Notes

Usage Notes

Date Formats

• Use YYYY-MM-DD for full day queries
• Use YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ for specific times
• The CLI handles conversion to ISO format automatically

JSON Processing

• The package uses Python's built-in json module
• jq is optional and only used in the bash example
• You can use any JSON processing tool of your choice

Output Files

• Flight summary: data/ba123_summary.json
• Flight data: data/flight_<flight_id>/

Error Handling

• The script checks for command success
• Handles missing dependencies gracefully
• Validates flight ID extraction