flightaware-mcp

MCP server for FlightAware AeroAPI (v4) — live flight tracking and aviation data for Claude. Track flights, read airport boards, look up operators and aircraft, fetch scheduled flights, and manage flight alerts, all over stdio.

Developed and maintained by AI (Claude Code). Use at your own discretion.

Quick start

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flightaware": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@chrischall/flightaware-mcp"],
      "env": { "AEROAPI_API_KEY": "your-aeroapi-key-here" }
    }
  }
}

Get a key at flightaware.com/aeroapi/portal. The free Personal tier (500 calls/month) is enough to start; AeroAPI bills per query.

Tools

Area	Tools
Flights	fa_get_flights, fa_search_flights, fa_search_flights_advanced, fa_search_flight_positions, fa_count_flights, fa_get_flight_track, fa_get_flight_position, fa_get_flight_route, fa_get_flight_map, fa_get_flight_history, fa_resolve_flight
Airports	fa_get_airport, fa_get_airport_flights, fa_get_airport_flight_counts, fa_get_airport_routes, fa_list_airports, fa_get_nearby_airports, fa_get_airport_delays, fa_get_airport_weather, fa_resolve_airport
Operators / aircraft	fa_get_operator, fa_get_operator_flights, fa_list_operators, fa_get_aircraft_owner
Schedules / predictive	fa_get_scheduled_flights, fa_foresight_search (premium tier)
Alerts	fa_list_alerts, fa_get_alert, fa_create_alert, fa_update_alert, fa_delete_alert, fa_get_alerts_endpoint, fa_set_alerts_endpoint

Alert mutations are confirm-gated: without confirm: true they return a dry-run preview and make no network call.

Configuration

Var	Required	Purpose
AEROAPI_API_KEY	yes	Your AeroAPI key (sent as the x-apikey header).
AEROAPI_OUTPUT_DIR	no	Default directory for flight-map PNGs (default: cwd).
AEROAPI_CACHE_TTL	no	Seconds to cache identical live-data GET responses (default: 15; 0 disables). Cuts AeroAPI per-query billing.
AEROAPI_STATIC_CACHE_TTL	no	Longer TTL for reference data — airport/operator info, routes, ownership, canonical lookups (default: 3600; 0 disables).

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test

Every request rides your own AeroAPI key and counts against your subscription quota. See docs/FLIGHTAWARE-API.md for the pinned endpoint surface.

License

MIT