What Every Flight Status Actually Means

The standard statuses

These cover roughly 95% of what you'll see day to day.

• Scheduled — On the books, not yet active.
• On Time — Currently expected within 14 minutes of schedule.
• Delayed — Currently expected later than schedule.
• Boarding — Gate is processing passengers.
• Gate Closed / Doors Closed — Boarding ended; if you aren't on, you've missed it.
• Pushed Back — Aircraft has left the gate but not yet airborne.
• Taxiing — Moving to or from the runway.
• In Air / Active — Wheels up.
• Landed — Wheels down.
• Arrived / At Gate — Door open, deplaning.

The less-common ones

• In Range — Used by some airlines when the aircraft is within ~30 minutes of arrival. Helpful for friends meeting you at the curb.
• Holding — The aircraft is flying a holding pattern, usually waiting for an ATC slot.
• Diverted — Aircraft has landed somewhere other than the scheduled destination. Common reasons: medical emergency, fuel, destination weather.
• Returned to Gate — Aircraft pushed back, then came back; usually a mechanical or paperwork issue.
• Returned to Origin — Aircraft was airborne, then turned back.
• Cancelled — The flight will not operate. Rebook immediately.
• Unknown — No data available; not necessarily bad, but worth checking again in 10 minutes.

Status vs. truth

Two important nuances:

1. Airlines update statuses on a schedule. Apps that pull from third-party operational data sometimes know about a delay before the airline has updated its own systems.
2. "On Time" is often optimistic. A flight scheduled for 5:00 p.m. that's "On Time" at 4:55 with no aircraft at the gate is not actually on time. Watch for the inbound flight.

Live Activities and widgets

If you're tracking with FlightyFlow, Live Activities surface the most important next event — boarding time, gate, expected arrival — directly on your Lock Screen. You almost never need to open the app during the trip.