AeroDataBox

AeroDataBox is an enhanced flight lookup provider that can replace the default adsbdb service used by AirTrail for flight number lookups.

Why Use AeroDataBox?

By default, AirTrail uses adsbdb for flight number lookups, which is free and requires no configuration. However, adsbdb has several limitations:

• Limited flight data coverage
• No ability to search flights by date
• Less reliable data for some routes and airlines

AeroDataBox provides significant improvements:

• Much better flight data coverage and accuracy
• Date search capability - you can look up historical flights by specifying a date

AeroDataBox provides a free tier that should be enough for most users. Get an API key here: https://rapidapi.com/aedbx-aedbx/api/aerodatabox.

Date Search Feature

One of the key advantages of AeroDataBox is the ability to search for flights by date. When using AeroDataBox as your flight lookup provider, you can:

• Enter a flight number along with a specific date (uses the existing "Departure" field) to find historical flight information
• Look up flights that occurred weeks or months ago
• Get more accurate departure and arrival times for past flights

This is particularly useful when logging flights retroactively or when you need to look up flight details from a previous trip.

• Optional by default: The integration is disabled unless you provide an API key.
• Where to set the key:
  • In the app (admins only): Settings → Integrations → "AeroDataBox API Key".
  • Or via environment variable: set INTEGRATIONS_AERO_DATA_BOX_KEY and restart the server.
• Server‑side only usage: The API key is kept on the server and never exposed to regular users. For non‑admin users the client never receives the key.
• Admin visibility only: The key is only ever sent to the frontend when requested by an authenticated admin (used to prefill the field in Settings). Requests by non‑admins are rejected.
• Proxied lookups: All flight number lookups are performed by the server, which adds the API key in the request to AeroDataBox. The browser never talks to AeroDataBox directly.

What happens without a key?

• Flight lookup features that rely on AeroDataBox are unavailable until a key is configured.
• The rest of AirTrail continues to work normally.