How I Built a Flight Status Checker That Cross-References Multiple Sources

The Problem: Every Source Says Something Different

If you've ever flown through Israel, you know the drill: you check your flight status on the airline's website, on the airport authority's site, on FlightRadar24, and on Google. And sometimes each one shows different information.

The airport authority says the flight is on time, FlightRadar shows a 20-minute delay, and Google still displays the original departure time. So what's the truth?

The Idea: Majority Voting

Instead of trusting a single source, I built a tool that checks multiple sources simultaneously and applies a majority-vote mechanism. If two out of three sources say there's a delay — there's probably a delay. If only one source disagrees — it probably just hasn't updated yet.

The Sources

The tool pulls data from three different sources:

Israel Airports Authority (IAA) — The official Israeli source. Data comes directly from the terminal.

FlightRadar24 — Tracks flights in real time using ADS-B broadcasts from the aircraft themselves.

Google — Aggregates information from various sources and displays a flight card in search results.

Each source returns a status (on time, delayed, cancelled, landed) and an expected time. The system compares the data and picks the answer the majority agrees on.

Confidence Score

Every result comes with a confidence indicator in three colors: green (all sources agree), yellow (majority agrees), red (no agreement). This way you know how much to trust the result.

Why No API Keys

An important principle: the tool doesn't require any API keys. All sources are publicly accessible — the IAA website, FlightRadar pages, and Google search results. That means no ongoing costs and no monthly usage limits.

What's Next

The tool is still in beta. I'm working on improving accuracy, adding push notifications when a status changes, and supporting more international flights beyond Israel.