Watch airports come alive
What you're watching
Jetorama is a live, animated miniature of the world's busiest airports. Every aircraft on the map is a real flight, drawn where it actually is right now: lining up on the runway, rolling down a taxiway, parked at a gate with the ground crew alongside, or on final approach over the city. Nothing is recorded or replayed. Pick an airport, and within a few seconds you are watching it work.
The positions come from ADS-B, the transponder broadcast that every airliner sends out several times a second with its identity, position, altitude and speed. Thousands of hobbyists around the world receive those broadcasts and share them through community networks, and Jetorama reads those feeds, works out what each aircraft is doing, and animates it on an accurate map of the airfield built from OpenStreetMap. The runway lights follow the real flow of traffic, the sky darkens with the real sunset, and the weather on each card is the airport's own current observation.
The globe is Earth as it looked two days ago, in NASA's daily satellite composite, lit by the sun where it is at this moment. Spin it, or scroll the cards, and pick a place to land.
The airports
- LAXLos Angeles International AirportFour parallel runways beside the Pacific, and the busiest airport on the US west coast.
- ORDChicago O'Hare International AirportEight runways, two giant hubs, and weather that keeps everyone on their toes.
- ATLHartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International AirportThe busiest airport on Earth: five parallel runways and an arrival every minute.
- DXBDubai International AirportA380s all day at the busiest international hub in the world.
- LHRLondon Heathrow AirportTwo runways running flat out, Terminal 5 at the west end.
- JFKJohn F. Kennedy International AirportCrossing runway pairs on Jamaica Bay, the AirTrain circling the terminals.
- SANSan Diego International AirportOne runway between the bay and downtown, and the steepest approach in the country.
- AMSAmsterdam Airport SchipholSix runways four metres below sea level, and a fifteen-minute taxi to the Polderbaan.
- DFWDallas/Fort Worth International AirportSeven runways on a site the size of Manhattan, Skylink threading the half-moon terminals.
- HNDTokyo Haneda AirportAsia's busiest airport: four runways on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, one standing on piers.
- BKKSuvarnabhumi AirportThree parallel runways around one vast terminal on the marsh east of the city.
- GRUSão Paulo/Guarulhos International AirportSouth America's busiest airport: two parallel runways on the plateau north-east of the biggest city in the hemisphere.
- SYDSydney Kingsford Smith AirportAustralia's busiest airport: two parallel runways reaching out into Botany Bay, and a third across them.
- SINSingapore Changi AirportThree parallel runways on reclaimed land at the eastern tip of the island, and the best-run hub in the world.
- HKGHong Kong International AirportThree parallel runways on an island built for the purpose, between the sea and the mountains of Lantau.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this real, or a simulation?
Real. Every aircraft is a live flight from ADS-B data, typically a few seconds behind the real world. Jetorama smooths the motion between updates so aircraft glide rather than jump, but it never invents a flight. The LIVE badge on each airport confirms the feed is connected.
Why is an aircraft I can see outside not on the map?
Coverage depends on volunteer receivers near the airport. Aircraft on the ground are the hardest to receive, because buildings block the signal, so a taxiing aircraft can drop out for a moment and reappear. Some military and private aircraft do not broadcast at all, and a few carry only a position-less transponder that Jetorama cannot place.
Where do the routes and airline names come from?
From the flight's callsign, matched against community route databases. When a callsign is unknown or the flight is a repositioning, the card says so rather than guessing.
How current is the weather?
Each airport's METAR, the observation its own weather station publishes, is fetched every few minutes from the US National Weather Service's Aviation Weather Center. The sun position is calculated, not observed, so the day and night lighting is always exact.
What are the different looks?
The airport map has four: Diorama, a soft realistic miniature; Arcade, an illustrated pixel-art style; Neon, a dark map with glowing linework; and Modern 3D, a tiltable flyover with real terrain and modelled aircraft. The globe has two: the real satellite picture, or a painted Diorama version with today's clouds and live rain.
Can I put it on my phone's home screen?
Yes. In Safari on iPhone, tap Share and then Add to Home Screen; on Android, use Install app from the browser menu. It then runs full screen like an app, with no browser bars.