Airplane

View API Documentation

Airplane tracking data over Belgium and the surrounding airspace. The platform combines two complementary feeds: OpenSky Network and adsb.lol, two community networks of ADS-B receivers. Each sees about 90% of the same aircraft; together they cover about 10% more than either alone. The unified-position endpoint fuses both feeds, deduplicating by ICAO24 hex code so each aircraft appears once with the most complete set of attributes available. Updated every minute. The data is provided in the GeoJSON format.

Source

Endpoints

Opensky position

/airplane/opensky-position

GEOJSON APPLICATION/JSON

Real-time positions of aircraft over Belgium as reported by the OpenSky Network.

Refresh: Every 5 minutes

From

2026-02-25 16:01:32

2026-10-11 00:12:18

Records

56,356

import requests
import geopandas as gpd

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone

yesterday_noon = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) - timedelta(days=1)).replace(
    hour=12, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0
)
params = {
    "timestamp": yesterday_noon.isoformat(),   # ISO accepted; epoch also works
}

url = "https://api.mobilitytwin.brussels/airplane/opensky-position"

data = requests.get(url, headers={
        'Authorization': 'Bearer [MY_API_KEY]'
}, params=params).json()

gdf = gpd.GeoDataFrame.from_features(data["features"])

# Show aircraft currently over Belgium
for _, plane in gdf.head(10).iterrows():
    alt = plane.get('baro_altitude', 0) or 0
    speed = plane.get('velocity', 0) or 0
    print(f"{plane['callsign']} ({plane['origin_country']}): "
          f"alt={alt:.0f}m, speed={speed:.0f} m/s")

# Plot aircraft positions
gdf.plot(figsize=(10, 8), color="#e67e22", markersize=10)

Adsb lol position

/airplane/adsb-lol-position

GEOJSON APPLICATION/JSON

Real-time positions of aircraft over Belgium, as reported by the adsb.lol community ADS-B network. Output schema mirrors the OpenSky endpoint so the two feeds are interchangeable; additional fields include registration, aircraft_type and source_feed. Data from adsb.lol, available under the Open Database License (ODbL).

Refresh: Every minute

From

2026-10-04 15:34:08

2026-10-11 00:14:40

Records

8,445

import requests
import geopandas as gpd

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone

yesterday_noon = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) - timedelta(days=1)).replace(
    hour=12, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0
)
params = {
    "timestamp": yesterday_noon.isoformat(),   # ISO accepted; epoch also works
}

url = "https://api.mobilitytwin.brussels/airplane/adsb-lol-position"

data = requests.get(url, headers={
        'Authorization': 'Bearer [MY_API_KEY]'
}, params=params).json()

gdf = gpd.GeoDataFrame.from_features(data["features"])

# Schema mirrors opensky-position so the two feeds can be swapped freely.
print(f"{len(gdf)} aircraft tracked right now")

# Show the lowest/loudest movers — useful for noise impact analysis.
moving = gdf[(gdf["velocity"].fillna(0) > 5) & (~gdf["on_ground"].fillna(False))]
lowest = moving.nsmallest(10, "baro_altitude")[
    ["callsign", "registration", "aircraft_type", "baro_altitude", "velocity"]
]
print(lowest)

# Plot
gdf.plot(figsize=(10, 8), color="#27ae60", markersize=10)

Unified position

/airplane/unified-position

GEOJSON APPLICATION/JSON

Unified real-time positions of aircraft, merging the OpenSky Network feed and adsb.lol. Aircraft are deduplicated by icao24 (with a callsign fallback). When both feeds see the same plane, the adsb.lol position is preferred (more recent) but OpenSky-only attributes such as origin_country are kept. Each feature includes a sources array listing which feeds reported it ("opensky", "adsb.lol", or both). adsb.lol data is available under the Open Database License (ODbL).

Refresh: Every minute

From

2026-05-07 12:09:09

2026-10-11 00:12:18

Records

38,224

import requests
import geopandas as gpd

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone

yesterday_noon = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) - timedelta(days=1)).replace(
    hour=12, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0
)
params = {
    "timestamp": yesterday_noon.isoformat(),   # ISO accepted; epoch also works
}

url = "https://api.mobilitytwin.brussels/airplane/unified-position"

data = requests.get(url, headers={
        'Authorization': 'Bearer [MY_API_KEY]'
}, params=params).json()

gdf = gpd.GeoDataFrame.from_features(data["features"])

# Each feature carries a `sources` array indicating which feeds saw the plane.
both = gdf[gdf["sources"].apply(lambda s: len(s) > 1)]
only_adsb_lol = gdf[gdf["sources"].apply(lambda s: s == ["adsb.lol"])]
only_opensky = gdf[gdf["sources"].apply(lambda s: s == ["opensky"])]

print(f"total:          {len(gdf)} aircraft")
print(f"both feeds:     {len(both)}")
print(f"adsb.lol:       {len(only_adsb_lol)} (only)")
print(f"opensky:        {len(only_opensky)} (only)")

# Filter to airborne planes inside a Belgium bounding box.
import shapely.geometry as sg
belgium = sg.box(2.5, 49.4, 6.55, 51.55)
in_belgium = gdf[gdf.geometry.within(belgium) & (~gdf["on_ground"].fillna(False))]
print(f"airborne over Belgium: {len(in_belgium)}")

# Plot, coloured by feed coverage.
def feed_color(sources):
    if "adsb.lol" in sources and "opensky" in sources:
        return "#9b59b6"
    if "adsb.lol" in sources:
        return "#27ae60"
    return "#e67e22"

gdf.plot(figsize=(10, 8), color=gdf["sources"].map(feed_color), markersize=12)