Where is my plane coming from?
The aircraft flying you somewhere is usually finishing another leg first. If that leg is running an hour behind, your departure is already in trouble — the board just hasn't said so yet.
Why your flight is late before it is announced
An airliner is not assigned to your flight. It is assigned to a chain of flights across a day, and yours is one link. A delay early in the morning on the other side of the continent propagates down that chain, absorbed a little at each stop if there is slack and passed straight through if there isn't.
This is why the departure board says "On time" until forty minutes before departure and then says "Delayed 55 minutes" all at once. The information existed hours earlier — it just lived in the previous leg's status rather than in yours.
FlyBud follows the tail. It shows where that specific aircraft is now, the leg it is finishing, when it is expected on the ground, and how that compares with the turnaround your flight needs. It handles the timezone shift too, which is exactly the sort of arithmetic nobody wants to do in an airport.
The inbound aircraft, on one screen
- ✓Where the aircraft is right now — in the air, on the ground, at which airport.
- ✓The previous leg as a timeline: when it left, when it lands, how late it is running.
- ✓The turnaround maths, done for you: how long the ground time is, and whether what's left of it is enough.
- ✓A clear cross-timezone note, so "lands at 19:20" is never 19:20 in the wrong country.
Inbound aircraft questions
How do you know which aircraft will fly my flight?
Airline schedule data links a flight to a registration, and the aircraft's own position broadcast confirms where that registration actually is. When the link is missing or the airline swaps aircraft late, FlyBud says it does not know rather than showing you the wrong plane.
Is this always right?
No, and it says so. Airlines do swap aircraft, and an inbound delay can be recovered with a fast turn. Treat it as the earliest available signal, not a verdict — which is still far more than the departure board gives you at the same moment.
Is it free?
A teaser row appears on the flight for everyone. The full screen with the previous leg and the turnaround verdict is part of Pro.
How early is it useful?
Usually from a few hours before departure, once the aircraft is a leg or two away. That is typically well before the airline publishes any delay.
Know before the board does.
FlyBud watches the aircraft, not just the flight number.