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Dubai resident Leila Khatib checks flight-tracking apps about seven times a day.
“They’re a good barometer for freedom right now,” she tells The National. “I look at how many flights are at or over Dubai International Airport and Zayed International Airport and what’s been grounded.”
For Khatib, the founder of a marketing agency, the appeal goes beyond travel updates.
“It’s almost like watching geopolitics unfold visually – seeing the ripple effects of instability on the map,” she says. “It makes what’s happening feel tangible.”
Flight-tracking platforms have been around for years, but their popularity often spikes during major global incidents. Most recently, as the US-Israel war on Iran reshaped airspace across the Middle East – and disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers – users around the world turned to these real-time platforms in droves.
On most days, Divyesh Udeshi opens a flight-tracking app out of habit, but he says that has become something more deliberate.
“Lately I've been on it more than usual, keeping tabs on airspace closures and reroutes. There's something grounding about real-time data when everything around it is being sensationalised,” says the Australian who lives in Dubai.
On travel days, that habit becomes a ritual.
“Beyond the bigger picture, there's also the more personal side of it, tracking friends and family in the air and getting comfort that they're where they should be,” Udeshi adds. “And naturally I keep an eye on my own upcoming travel by checking the aircraft's history, whether it's already departed from its previous destination, if there are any patterns worth knowing before I board.”
The sense of watching events unfold in real time is echoed by others.
Haroon Tahir, 31, an associate account director in Dubai, says he checks a flight-tracking app “at least five or six times a day now”.
“I almost refresh it more than my social media pages,” he says. “Looking at the flights gives me a clear outlook on the geopolitical situation, where often the news cycle is too late to report stories and social media is rife with misinformation.
“Looking at all the flights landing in the wider GCC gives me a sense of relief and further normality as well.”
For some, such apps are not just a curiosity, but part of their work.
Kaung Wai Yan Kyaw, a hospitality professional based in Dubai, says he uses the platforms to monitor guest arrivals, delays and cancellations “for better service co-ordination”.
“Recently I’ve been checking more frequently. Flight routes and airline operations can change quickly, so staying updated helps both professionally and personally,” he says.
Even those with an aviation background say their habits have shifted.
Candice Young, 42, from London, who lives in Dubai and has worked in operations for airlines including British Airways and Etihad Airways, says she would usually only check flight-tracking apps when travelling.
“In the last few weeks, however, I’ve been using them far more regularly – as most people would be – especially if I’ve seen that there’s an incident near the airport,” she says.
“One of the best tips with apps such as Flightradar24 is it allows you to see the rotation of an aircraft. There have been times when I’m unsure how long a delay will be and I can see that the aircraft is two hours late adding turnaround time, and I have an idea of when the new estimated time of departure will be.”
Real-time window to the skies
Aviation expert Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at Strategic Aero Research in London, says the surge in interest reflects a broader shift in how people consume information.
“On average, five million people a day use Flightradar24,” he says. “It's highly probable that the US-Iran war has meant that more than several million people are using the platform at any one time each day than would be usual.”
He says users are increasingly turning to flight-tracking platforms for reassurance.
“People want to be able to see what routings airlines are taking away from conflict zones. Some people have to travel, be it for work or personal reasons, and they want assurance if they book flights out of the Middle East. They want to know whether it's safe to do so.”
However, Ahmad cautions against treating flight tracking as a singular source.
“Such a platform is but one piece of a bigger news picture. It's not a news service, but more an information and status provider on 13,000-plus tracked flights a day,” he adds.
Still, the role of such portals in everyday information habits is growing.
“They certainly keep the public informed about how and where flights are operating, particular in the Gulf right now when there is open conflict affecting many countries and airspace availability,” Ahmed says. “Flightradar24 has become the de facto tool that informs its viewers about how and where flights operate and whether people are confident to fly during such times when flights are limited, costly and the safety risk is real.”
Developed in the mid-2000s, Flightradar24 began as a niche information tool for aviation enthusiasts, but has since grown into one of the world’s most widely used flight-tracking platforms. It aggregates data from tens of thousands of ground receivers across the globe, alongside satellite feeds, to create a near-real-time map of global air traffic – a level of visibility that was once limited to industry professionals.
Flightradar24 reported a 100 per cent increase in usage week-on-week, with more than 25 million people tracking flights in just three days following the start of the US-Iran war.
Such spikes are not unusual. Previous events – from volcanic eruptions to the Covid-19 pandemic – also led people to map flights more frequently.
How flight-tracking apps work
Most flight-tracking platforms operate using the same underlying technology, but present it in slightly different ways.
Aircraft are equipped with transponders that continuously broadcast signals containing data such as position, altitude, speed and identification. These signals are not encrypted, which means they can be picked up by receivers on the ground.
At the heart of this is ADS-B or Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, a system that allows aircraft to determine their position using satellite navigation and then broadcast that data continuously. Each transmission effectively allows it to “announce” its location to anyone equipped to receive the signal.
These unencrypted signals are picked up by ground-based antennas, many of which are run by volunteers and aviation enthusiasts. The data is then fed into centralised networks that compile and display it on user-friendly maps.
In areas where ground coverage is limited – such as over oceans or remote regions – satellite-based ADS-B tracking is used to fill in the gaps, meaning flights can still be followed even when they are far from land.
From uncertainty to hope
For Nerry Toledo, using a flight-tracking app began as a necessity but has become something deeper.
The Filipina workplace mental health specialist and yoga instructor, who lives and works in Dubai, says she began using Flightradar24 when she was stranded in Manila earlier this month.
“I checked it several times a day. It almost became a small ritual. Open the app. Zoom into the map. Look at the sky. Each time, I was hoping to see something that might mean there was a way back,” she says.
“When you are waiting to go back to a place that matters to you, every plane in the sky suddenly feels personal.”
Now back in Dubai, Toledo tracks flights less frequently, but the habit has stayed with her. “There is something quietly calming about it,” she says. “You watch these tiny planes moving slowly across the map, and it reminds you that the world never completely stops. Life keeps moving.
“For me, it became a reminder that movement and possibility are always there, even when things feel uncertain on the ground. And suddenly, a flight map is no longer just about planes. Sometimes it is about hope.”
