BA flight status: track every British Airways flight live

Track a British Airways flight live right now: type the BA flight number into the radar at the top of this page, the same live flight radar as on our homepage, and the map jumps straight to the Speedbird, whether that is a 777 inbound from New York or the Edinburgh shuttle pushing back at Heathrow Terminal 5, with route, altitude, speed and time to destination on screen. The BA flight status, live, comes from two places: the departure board and the aircraft itself, and this page gives you both. No flight number to hand? Open the Heathrow departures board, find the flight by destination and departure time, and search for that number instead. Below you can read how BA flight numbers work, why the radar sometimes calls a BA flight BAW or SHT, when British Airways flights tend to run late, and which aircraft you are actually looking at.

Where to find your BA flight number, and why the radar says BAW

Every British Airways flight number starts with BA followed by one to four digits: BA117 to New York, BA432 to Amsterdam, BA1442 to Edinburgh. You will find it on your booking confirmation, on your boarding pass and on the airport departure boards.

On the radar itself things look slightly different, and this catches a lot of people out. Airlines use a separate three-letter code, the callsign, for air traffic control. British Airways mainline flights fly as BAW, spoken on the radio as Speedbird, so the aircraft operating BA117 identifies itself as BAW117. Domestic flights between Heathrow and Scotland or the north of England use the prefix SHT, short for Shuttle, a leftover from the old Super Shuttle service. Flights from London City are operated by BA CityFlyer under the code CFE, and short-haul flights from Gatwick belong to BA Euroflyer and appear as EFW, so a Gatwick departure that reads BA2762 on your ticket shows up as an EFW aircraft on the map. It is all the same airline and the same booking, and our search understands the number on your ticket: enter BA117 and the radar finds BAW117 without you having to know any of this.

Is my BA flight on time?

The quickest way to read a BA flight status is to combine two views. The Heathrow departures or arrivals board shows the scheduled and the estimated time, so a delay appears there first; the radar then shows you why. If the 777 due to operate your flight is still over the Atlantic on its way in from New York 40 minutes before boarding, you know about the delay before the board admits it: click the aircraft and check the time remaining on the inbound leg.

British Airways punctuality is dominated by one fact: Heathrow runs at close to full capacity, so there is little room to catch up once something slips. The first departure wave around 06:00 is the most reliable of the day. Transatlantic arrivals pile in between 05:00 and 08:00, and when strong wind or low visibility cuts the landing rate, that morning queue pushes delays into the rest of the schedule. Short-haul flights feel it most in the evening, because the same aircraft has flown three or four rotations by then and carries every earlier delay with it. Long-haul departures are steadier, though a late inbound aircraft can shift them by an hour at short notice. If your flight leaves after 20:00, checking the radar an hour before departure is genuinely worth it.

British Airways fleet and UK bases

British Airways is the UK flag carrier and flies from three London airports. Heathrow Terminal 5 is the heart of the operation, with three buildings (5A, 5B and 5C) linked by an underground transit train; a smaller number of BA flights use Terminal 3. Gatwick hosts the short-haul leisure network of BA Euroflyer and a set of long-haul holiday routes to Florida and the Caribbean; BA shares that airport with its biggest short-haul rival, so if you are on the orange competition instead, use our easyJet flight tracker. London City is home to BA CityFlyer, which flies Embraer E190 jets on business and city routes across Europe.

On the radar you can tell the fleet apart at a glance. Short-haul Europe and domestic routes are flown by the Airbus A320 family, including the newer A320neo and A321neo. Long-haul is a mix of Boeing 777s and 787s, the Airbus A350-1000 and the double-deck Airbus A380, which BA still operates on high-demand routes such as Los Angeles and Johannesburg. Click any aircraft on the map and you see the exact type and registration before you board.

Frequently asked questions

Which Heathrow terminal does British Airways use?

Almost all British Airways flights at Heathrow use Terminal 5; a minority depart from Terminal 3. Your boarding pass and the Heathrow departures board state the terminal, so check before you set off, especially on tickets booked through a partner airline.

How do transfers work at Terminal 5?

Follow the purple Flight Connections signs; you stay inside the secure area. Gates in buildings 5B and 5C are reached by the underground transit train, which takes a few minutes. The official minimum connection time within Terminal 5 is 60 minutes; between Terminal 5 and Terminal 3 allow at least 90. If your first flight is running late, look up the onward aircraft on the radar to see where it is.

My BA flight is delayed. Am I entitled to compensation?

Under UK air passenger rights you can claim £220, £350 or £520, depending on flight distance, if you arrive 3 hours late or more and the cause lies with the airline, such as crew shortages or a technical fault. Weather and air traffic control restrictions do not qualify. Whatever the cause, British Airways must offer food and drink during a longer delay.

When does BA online check-in open?

British Airways online check-in opens 24 hours before departure, on the website and in the app. With hand baggage only you can go straight to security at Terminal 5; with hold luggage, allow time for the bag drop, which gets busy before the morning and mid-afternoon departure waves.