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, every 5 minutes, when a new OpenSky snapshot arrives. 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

2026-10-31 10:32:02

Records

62,415

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 4 minutes

From

2026-10-04 15:34:08

2026-10-31 10:33:11

Records

23,243

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 5 minutes

From

2026-05-07 12:09:09

2026-10-31 10:32:02

Records

42,097

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)