Flightradar24 lists the registration of the aircraft that will be used on flights a few days from now for some airlines in NA and Europe. I believe this is one of the most powerful features of FR24, and regardless of how accurate it is (sometimes it's not, based on experience), it is a great feature. I tried to google this, but couldn't find an answer. Where does FR24 get its data from? It's not always available, so I'd guess it's sourced out from the airlines' databases themselves, and if so, it must be a very extensive network of big data!

Possibly SWIM?

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/swim/

However, I don't know if that's true for FlightTrader

Flightradar24 says, "Flightradar24 combines data from several sources including schedule and flight status databases from airlines and airports around the world. These databases includes most regular and scheduled flights but some minor airlines and charter airlines may be missing. Flightradar24 is working continuously to acquire as much route data as possible."
https://www.flightradar24.com/faq

As far as showing the registration for an upcoming flight, the correct aircraft should be shown, but the airline could change the aircraft at any time based on delays or any other reason. I think some flights don't show the aircraft registration because either the airline does not publish that information or the airline uses a different aircraft code than what is standard across the world. For example, AF54 does not show an aircraft registation for tomorrow because it shows the equipment as 388 instead of A388.

CapitalAvGeek wrote:

Flightradar24 says, "Flightradar24 combines data from several sources including schedule and flight status databases from airlines and airports around the world. These databases includes most regular and scheduled flights but some minor airlines and charter airlines may be missing. Flightradar24 is working continuously to acquire as much route data as possible."
https://www.flightradar24.com/faq

As far as showing the registration for an upcoming flight, the correct aircraft should be shown, but the airline could change the aircraft at any time based on delays or any other reason. I think some flights don't show the aircraft registration because either the airline does not publish that information or the airline uses a different aircraft code than what is standard across the world. For example, AF54 does not show an aircraft registation for tomorrow because it shows the equipment as 388 instead of A388.

The fact that's "several sources" is mind blowing. And yes, I wouldn't blame the inaccuracy on FR24, since airlines often change this, especially for flights within North America. The only problem though is that FR24 sticks with the first one, and doesn't update the aircraft tail number accordingly.

od-bwh wrote:

The only problem though is that FR24 sticks with the first one, and doesn't update the aircraft tail number accordingly.

It's possible too that the aircraft-planned details are not drawn from a specific database but rather are inferred from previous patterns - so if, for example, the aircraft operating flight XY123 has then consistently gone on to operate flight XY456, it's a reasonable assumption that you can extend this back far enough to work out how to extend it forward a few days or so.

Therefore it's wouldn't be them sticking with the old registration in cases of change, but rather the fact they don't know about the change until the flight's transponder is switched on.

Airlines don’t have their lines routed out more than a couple days and they are constantly changing due to irrops. Any tail
Assignment more than 24hours out is highly suspect.

XAM2175 wrote:

It's possible too that the aircraft-planned details are not drawn from a specific database but rather are inferred from previous patterns - so if, for example, the aircraft operating flight XY123 has then consistently gone on to operate flight XY456, it's a reasonable assumption that you can extend this back far enough to work out how to extend it forward a few days or so.

I highly doubt that - building such an algorithm for all flights, would be much to much work for flightradar

My guess is, that flightradar gets the data from the airports. As quite some airports showing as well the planned registration on their website, it seems to be a standard information of the data base.

It might be as well possible, that there is a kind of global database, as airlines, airport and ATC have to have a information exchange network.

For example (as this is my area of expertise), all aviation related meteorological information as weather observations and forecasts for airports are available in one global data set, available through the UN or large national MET offices.

od-bwh wrote:

Flightradar24 lists the registration of the aircraft that will be used on flights a few days from now for some airlines in NA and Europe. I believe this is one of the most powerful features of FR24, and regardless of how accurate it is (sometimes it's not, based on experience), it is a great feature. I tried to google this, but couldn't find an answer. Where does FR24 get its data from? It's not always available, so I'd guess it's sourced out from the airlines' databases themselves, and if so, it must be a very extensive network of big data!

Not what you asked about but interesting ...

Flightradar24 has put ADSB receivers in the hands of amateurs. ADSB sends a unique ID number per aircraft. You can apply for one here.
https://www.flightradar24.com/apply-for-receiver

You can see the map of where they added in July 2018 here. https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/tag/ads-b/

Here is the flightaware adsb coverage map. https://flightaware.com/adsb/coverage

32andBelow wrote:

Airlines don’t have their lines routed out more than a couple days and they are constantly changing due to irrops. Any tail
Assignment more than 24hours out is highly suspect.

The airline I used to work for would plot aircraft routings for seven days out.

But what you said about any tail assignment more than 24hrs out being highly suspect is definitely correct. The assigned aircraft could change a dozen times in the days leading up to departure. Heck, it could change several times on the day OF departure too.