FlightAware added some 4,000 ground-based ADS-B receivers last year, more than doubling its terrestrial network and adding surface-movement coverage of more than 200 airports in the process.
The flight-tracking company last fall announced that its coverage was expanding to include airport surface movements, setting the stage for an as-yet-unspecified suite of product offerings for users that need to track ground operations. Combined with satellite-fed data from Aireon, which the company receives as part of a collaborative agreement and provides oceanic coverage, FlightAware is moving toward global ADS-B coverage with "gate-to-gate visibility," said CEO Daniel Baker.
FlightAware, through its FlightFeeder program, makes and distributes ADS-B receivers to volunteers, who host the units and share the captured data with FlightAware via the Internet. The devices track aircraft emitting ADS-B signals within about 250 nm and also track aircraft that are not ADS-B equipped through multilateration, a technique that uses transponder signals to pinpoint aircraft position.
“It’s an incredible, international effort to crowdsource data,” said Eric Carlson, program manager of FlightAware’s ADS-B network. “We’ve created a community that brings people from more than 170 countries together to improve the way aircraft are tracked.”