Welcome to the Chicago Department of Aviation's (CDA) flight tracking program - WebTrak. WebTrak allows you to watch the movement of flights and air traffic patterns within the Chicago metropolitan area. This flight tracking system includes specific information about flights departing from and arriving to Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport. Information includes the flight number, origin/destination airport, aircraft type, and altitude.
WebTrak has a graphical interface that helps users easily identify aircraft and their location. Aircraft departing and arriving to O'Hare and Midway are shown in different shades of green and red.
Flight and aircraft radar data originate from a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data feed that collects the flight track and flight identification from FAA radar sensors, Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X), flight plan data, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) from equipped aircraft. This data is downloaded and processed by the CDA's Airport Noise Management System (ANMS), and uploaded for WebTrak usage.
Current data is viewed in the Live Mode and is delayed approximately 20 minutes for aviation security reasons and system data processing. Historical data is viewed in the Replay Mode and is available for up to 90 days.
If you are a first-time user of this system, please take a few minutes to read the "Start Here", "Legend", and "Help" tabs in the upper left corner of the WebTrak site. These tabs will help you understand the full capabilities of WebTrak and how to use it.
Aircraft icons are not to scale and will change in size at different zoom levels. Airlines, aircraft type, and airport code information is encoded in three or four characters.
WebTrak is best viewed using a high-speed broadband Internet connection. A dial-up connection also may be used, but loading the application and data will be much slower, resulting in longer waiting periods, and it will not be possible to use high levels of acceleration when reviewing historical data.
Your computer should meet the following minimum specifications:
Chrome, Internet Explorer 6+ or Firefox 2+ is recommended for Windows, and Safari for Mac. Other browsers may work, but have not been tested.
This website is intended to display the general location and flow of air traffic in the Chicago metropolitan area. WebTrak information is not intended for navigational purposes or airline schedule information. You may also notice aircraft icons sometimes "dropping off" and/or suddenly behaving unusually. These "ghost" images are due to radar and aircraft transponder wave reflections from the ground, terrain, and meteorological conditions away from the airport.
The WebTrak website is not owned, operated, or maintained by the CDA. This webpage and the flight tracking information is a public resource of general information. The use of this site is for illustrative purposes only. The CDA makes no warranty or representation or guarantee as to the content, sequence, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the database information provided herein. Any reliance on such database information by the user of this site is at the user’s own risk. The CDA explicitly disclaims any warranties or merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
The CDA shall assume no liability for:
To launch WebTrak click here