FiledRoutesDB

Filed flight-plan route pairs, callsign to origin and destination, observed through the U.S. air traffic system.

A downloadable database, not an API. Each consumer fetches one small file and resolves routes locally. There is no endpoint, and none is planned.

Download

The current file is attached to the data release:

https://github.com/StrausbergAutomationWorks/FiledRoutesDB/releases/download/data/filedroutesdb.json.gz
https://github.com/StrausbergAutomationWorks/FiledRoutesDB/releases/download/data/SHA256SUMS

The file is rebuilt daily. Only the current file is published; each build replaces the previous one, and superseded files are not kept here.

Format

One gzipped JSON document. Top-level fields:

Field	Meaning
format	filedroutesdb/1
built, expires	UTC timestamps. Do not use the file after expires (10 days after it was built).
ladd_applied	Date of the FAA LADD list this build was filtered against. A file without it must be refused.
ladd_entries, ladd_suppressed	Size of that list, and how many identifiers the build suppressed
collection_start	First day of collection behind the file
min_observations, leg_dormant_days	Build thresholds, below
attribution, licence, licence_url, home	Provenance and terms, below
routes	The data

routes maps a callsign to:

Key	Meaning
u	user category (COMMERCIAL, CARGO, GENERAL AVIATION, AIR TAXI, MILITARY, OTHER, UNKNOWN)
a	aircraft category (JET, TURBO, PISTON, OTHER)
s	last time the callsign was seen, epoch seconds UTC
l	its legs, most observed first: {"r": "ORIGIN-DESTINATION", "n": observations}

Airports are ICAO codes. Names and coordinates are left to the consumer.

A callsign often has more than one leg. Most are one city pair flown in both directions; some are genuine multi-leg flight numbers. The observation count ranks them, but the right leg for a given aircraft depends on where it is, which only the consumer knows. Do not assume the first leg is the one being flown.

Build rules

• A leg needs at least min_observations observations.
• A leg not seen for leg_dormant_days is left out when the same callsign has flown another leg within that time. This drops routes a flight number no longer flies. A callsign whose legs are all quiet keeps them.
• Positions, tracks, times, owners, registrants and Mode S addresses are not published.

LADD

Aircraft on the FAA Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) list are excluded from every build, including all historical data for them. The filter is applied to the whole collection on every build, so an aircraft added to the list disappears from the next file.

An aircraft that leaves the list is published again only when the FAA's removal file names it. One that leaves without a removal entry stays excluded.

The build fails closed: no list, an unparseable list, or a list more than seven days old, and nothing is produced.

Disclaimer

Derived from data obtained through the FAA SWIM Cloud Distribution Service. This is not FAA data, is not an official source, and is not endorsed by or affiliated with the FAA. Not for operational, air traffic, law enforcement, or safety-of-life use.

Availability depends on upstream services and may be interrupted without notice.

Licence

• Data (the release files): CC BY 4.0. See DATA_LICENSE.md. Attribution must name FiledRoutesDB and carry the disclaimer above.
• Code in this repository: MIT. See LICENSE.