Real life airline gate

Hi guys, is there a way to know assigned airline gates in real life? I want to be more realistic.

I like to look on flightradar24 or google it. On FR24, I just search the route I want to fly and then the airlines that fly it and with which planes. If the flight is live usually you can see which gate it came from. For the specified name of the gate, usually searching the flight number (also in fr24, which you could use as your callsign for added realism) will give you the gates on either end.

Once you have a route in mind (assuming it’s real), I search it up on Google Flights to identify its flight number and departure/arrival times. I then search the number up, and most browsers have a built-in flight tracking system that, amongst other things, shows assigned gates in both ends.

Finally, and although this isn’t possible sometimes, I like to wait until the real time of the flight and match its progress-long hauls usually won’t work here though because of time zone differences.

so, there’s no way knowing it without live-tracking the actual flight?

There is also this website:

It’s not 100% reliable - particularly outside of North America but it usually gives at least the right terminal.

wow, that’s cool! it’s not gate-specific indeed but quite helpful, thanks!

No problem - if you have any other questions feel free to send me a message :)

Have a great rest of your day!

What I do is just search up the flight history on flightradar24, and find the replay
Make sure your map is on satellite view, and zoom into the where the replay is showing the flight was.
Then you can usually find the gate number on the ground near the gate, although sometimes its not entirely visible (in that case, I use the terminal structures, taxiways, etc. around the gate to locate it and match that up with the gates on IF to get the number)

It works 99% of the time but it is sort of complicated. Lmk if you need any help with this!

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well that’s kinda complicated but I’ll try it next time. thanks for the advice!

FlightAware offers very great gate information. I use it for my flightplans and gates along with scheduled flight time. It also offers gate information for airport out of the USA

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it’s similar to FlightStats and both websites don’t really show arrival gates outside the US, it seems

This is one of the main Reasons i don’t like flying outside the US, 90% of the time Flightaware or Flightradar24 are correct for America, Other Countries not alot.

How? I fly outside of America a lot and I have no trouble finding the correct gate the majority of the time, it’s mainly China and airports that have restricted flight coverage in the airport that give me trouble

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Mexico is another region that’s doesn’t give out much details either and it also depends on the Airline itself i Find

Flightaware gives good gate information for me in non-restricted airspaces/territories for me. The gate info always comes within 4-3 hours of aircraft arrival or when the airline/airport announces it only so there isn’t any great option.

Carefull, airports like Paris CDG show different gates as the numbers for PAX and pilots differ.
Same issue at Amsterdam and the D-Pier. I always check flightaware and compare it with FR24 to figure out which gate is where

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I found one! I recommend using Flighty as well!!

There are a number of ways to do this:

  1. Google the flight number. If you are flying as per real life schedule, Google will show you the departure and arrivals gates. This is true for major airports.

  2. If Google is not showing results, go to the airport’s website and manually check for the departure gate for your flight. Arrival gates are generally not shown, but if it’s a flight from the airline’s home base, you can look up the departure gate for the return flight. For example, if you’re flying FRA-LAX and can’t find the arrival gate at LAX, check on LAX’s website the departure gate for LAX-FRA as they would be the same. The only time this won’t work is if the turnaround time is really long, because in such cases aircraft gets towed away and parked up at a remote stand.

  3. When neither of the above work, just Google the airline’s terminal at the respective airport or check on the airport’s website. Additionally, Google the flight number and view the flight history on FR24 and playback some past flights to see on the map where they started and ended. This is not always reliable however as a lot of times the tracking starts and finishes at the runway, not at the gate.

  4. You can also look up the flight on YouTube and skim through some videos of that flight to get an idea of which gates that flight uses for departure and arrival.

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For CDG, I just try my best to line it up with Infinite Flight using the Terminal Maps on the airline website. It’s not the best system, but it works somehow.

I always find the flight on FR24, then put that flight number into flight aware where it gives me all the info, gate/FPL/cruise etc