Lack of Airports

[KasperNymand]

Dear Pilots,

I am following the airspace around the Globe, but I have discovered, that Flightradar24 lacks some smaller airports around the World.
For instance, here in Roskilde, Denmark, there's a medium-sized airport called Roskilde Airport (IATA: RKE | ICAO: EKRK).

This airport is used for more special / private flights. Is that why it's not listed on Flightradar24?

Description from their website (http://www.rke.dk/rke/uk/main/):
Roskilde Airport is a small exclusive airport with an attractive location near Copenhagen.
Due to a fast transit time after landing in Roskilde Airport, Copenhagen City is only 30 minutes away.
Every 5 minutes a plane is either landing or taking off - each day of the year - in an airport which is largely used for Business Aviation, but also for local school flights.
Roskilde Airport is owned and operated by the stock market led company Copenhagen Airports A/S, whose primary business is Copenhagen Airport in Kastrup.

I've been in this airport a few times, and find it very interesting.
Therefore it would be great, to have it showing up on Flightradar24 too.
I never see any aircraft taking off / landing in the airport, even though the website says, there is one about every 5 minutes.

I've thought of setting up an ADS-B receiver myself. Would this improve the coverage of those flights, or is the area already covered there?
I know that it could be due to, that some of the flights uses an older radar system, but not all of them, right?


By the way, thanks for this great web service!
I enjoy exploring the airspace daily.

[Albin]

Hi Kasper.

You can find answer on your question in the FAQ.

http://www.flightradar24.com/faq

"What are the blue points on map?
Major airports in areas where Flightradar24.com normally have ADS-B coverage. The airport marks can be removed in settings. We only plot airports with regular ADS-B traffic."

[KasperNymand]

Yes, I have already read the FAQ.
I just thought the airport had more traffic, since it is a very busy airport, with business, celebrities, and similar often using that one, instead of the Copenhagen Airport in Kastrup, Denmark.

I did actually find the airport here: http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/rke

Will an aircraft (with ADS-B) setting off / landing in the airport show up on the map, even though the airport itself isn't marked?
Or, will the aircraft be sorted out, since the from / to airport doesn't exist on the map?

[Albin]

All planes equipped with ADS-B will show up on the map, even if the airport isnt marked on the map.

So the traffic to from Roskilde will be shown on the map anyway, if they now have ADS-B.

[Kpin]

Hi Kasper
In Europe the ADS-B equipment is almost exclusively used in commercial aircraft in scheduled traffic. And even within that group a lot of older aircraft used in domestic and European traffic does not have the equipment. Read more here: http://www.flightradar24.com/how-it-works

Roskilde has no scheduled traffic. Most smaller business jets do not carry ADS-B and therefor you will not see them on Flightradar24. However should one such smaller aircraft be ADS-B equipped you would see it also if it operates in and out of Rosklide.

It doesn't matter that the airport is not marked on the map. The people at Flightradar24 believe that too many airport markers will mess up the map, and airports without any ADS-B traffic are not marked.

The Copenhagen area is well covered by receivers but there is always room for more. Sometimes a receiver is out of service for various reasons. But apart from sharing data with Flightradar24, it is interesting in it self the set up a receiver at see what you can trace so go for it.
However as mentioned it will not improve on the traffic at Roskilde.