Flightradar24 has been around for a while now yet it seems that it’s slipped under the, er, radar, of many people. The flight tracking service gives you “real-time information for thousands of aircraft around the world” – you’ll never miss a flight, or an important airport pickup, ever again.

The service started over half a decade ago as a hobby between two Swedish “aviation geeks” who built a network of ADS-B receivers across Europe. In 2009, three years after their initial launch, they opened up their network to anyone with an ADS-B receiver and started getting a lot of international coverage, however complete global coverage is not quite there, yet. Currently, they have a network of over 500 receivers across the globe which gather flight information from all aircraft equipped with ADS-B transpoders, roughly 60% of all passenger aircraft. As great as that all sounds, why does it matter to you? Here’s why.

With Flightradar24 you can track airplanes moving in real-time and you’ll receive comprehensive information for each individual plan “including route, speed, altitude and more”. The augmented reality view let’s you identify planes simply by pointing your phone’s camera at them as they fly by. Oh, did I forget to mention that, yes there is an app for Flightradar24, both for iPhone and Android, and yes, they have local coverage. With the service you can easily search for specific flights and you filter general results by a variety of options.

According to the official site, it receives more than 10 million visits per month and the app has been downloaded more than two million times, guess they must be doing something right. Check it out here.

Check out 2ovflights.com when you book your next flight, you might be surprised at its efficiency too. It’s also works on mobile.

[Source: Flightradar24]