Automating Flight Status Data Extraction using Google Sheets and Flight Tracking API

Manually checking flight status is time-consuming and inefficient—especially if you need to track multiple flights daily. Whether you’re a developer building a travel application, a business managing flight logistics or a data analyst who needs to monitor schedules, automation is the key to efficiency.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to automate flight status tracking using Google Sheets with a Flight Tracking API, so that after setting up you always have real-time flight data without the hassle of manual updates.

To make things even easier, I’m giving you a ready-to-use Google Sheet flight tracker template with everything set up for you.

Stick around till the end to grab your free copy.

What You’ll Need to Get Started

Before setting up automation, make sure you have the following:

1. FlightAPI API Key
2. Google Sheet
3. Required Parameters

• Airline Code (IATA, e.g., “DL” for Delta Airlines)
• Flight Date (Format: YYYYMMDD)
• Flight Number (Optional)

4. Flight Tracking API Documentation

Getting Started with Flight Status Automation

Now that you have everything ready, keep your API key, Google Sheets, and required parameters handy as we walk through the setup.

1. Get Your FlightAPI Key

To fetch real-time flight status data, you need an API key from FlightAPI. Follow these steps to get yours:

1. Go to FlightAPI.io
2. Sign up and create an account
3. Navigate to the API dashboard
4. Copy your unique API key—you’ll need it to make requests. With a free account, you get 20 credits for testing, where 1 credit is used per request. To access more data, you can upgrade your plan.

2. Prepare Google Sheets with the Required Parameters

Now that you have your API Key, the next step is to set up a structured Google Sheet to handle input and output data. This will ensure that we send the correct request parameters to the API and store the fetched flight details properly.

But before we create the sheet, how do we know what data is required? 

Go to the Flight Tracking API documentation page, and you’ll find the list of required parameters needed for making requests. 

Now it’s time to set up the Google sheet. 

A ) Set Up the Input Sheet

The Input Sheet is where you’ll enter flight details for the API to process. This makes the request dynamic and allows easy updates without modifying the script.

1. Open a Google Sheet and name it anything you like. I named mine “Automating Flight Status Data Extraction”. Rename Sheet1 to “Input”.

2. In Row 1, add the following headers:

• Airline Name → Full airline name (e.g., American Airlines, optional)
• Airline Code → IATA airline code (e.g., AA for American Airlines)
• Num → Number of flights to fetch (e.g., 2459)
• Date → Flight date in YYYY-MM-DD format

Each row will contain details for different flights you want to track. The script will read these values and fetch real-time flight status data.

B) Set Up the Output Sheet

The Output Sheet will store the real-time flight data fetched from the API. This helps organize the retrieved details in a structured format for easy tracking.

1. In the same Google Sheet, create a new sheet and rename it “Output”.

2️. In Row 1, add the following headers:

• Flight Number → 
• Departure Airport → The airport where the flight takes off (e.g., LAX for Los Angeles International)
• Scheduled Departure Time → The planned departure time based on the airline’s schedule (e.g., 10:30 AM, Feb 5)
• Arrival Airport → The destination airport (e.g., JFK for John F. Kennedy International)
• Scheduled Arrival Time → The estimated landing time (e.g., 6:45 PM, Feb 5)

Each time the script runs, it will fill up this sheet with live flight details.

3. Send Get Requests Through Apps Script

Now that your Google Sheet is ready, it’s time to connect it with FlightAPI using Google Apps Script. This script is already designed to:

• Pick the required parameters for the API key to work from the Input Sheet
• Send a request to FlightAPI
• Store the retrieved data in the Output Sheet

You just need to add the script and edit your API key—that’s it!

Add the Script to Google Sheets

Follow these steps to insert the script into your Google Sheet:

1. Click Extensions → Apps Script

2. In the left panel, click Code.gs

3.  Remove any existing code and paste the script provided below 👇

function updateFlightDetailsDynamically() {

  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();

  var inputSheet = ss.getSheetByName("Input");

  var outputSheet = ss.getSheetByName("Output");

  // API setup

  var apiKey = 'Paste Your API Key'; // Updated API key

  // Determine the last row with data in the Input sheet

  var lastRow = inputSheet.getLastRow();

  // Clear existing data in the output

  outputSheet.getRange('A2:E' + lastRow).clearContent();

  for (var i = 2; i <= lastRow; i++) { // Loop through all rows with data

    // Fetch input data for each row

    var airlineCode = inputSheet.getRange("B" + i).getValue();

    var flightNumber = inputSheet.getRange("C" + i).getValue();

    var flightDate = Utilities.formatDate(new Date(inputSheet.getRange("D" + i).getValue()), Session.getScriptTimeZone(), "yyyyMMdd");

    // Construct API URL

    var apiUrl = 'https://api.flightapi.io/airline/' + apiKey + '?name=' + airlineCode + '&num=' + flightNumber + '&date=' + flightDate;

    // Make the API call

    var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(apiUrl);

    var responseData = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());

    if (responseData.length > 0) {

      var departureData = responseData[0].departure[0];

      var arrivalData = responseData[1].arrival[0];

      // Prepare data for output

      var flightDetails = [

        flightNumber, // Flight Number

        departureData['Airport:'], // Departure Airport

        departureData['Scheduled Time:'], // Departure Time and Date

        arrivalData['Airport:'], // Arrival Airport

        arrivalData['Scheduled Time:'] // Arrival Time and Date

      ];

      // Write to the output sheet

      outputSheet.getRange(i, 1, 1, 5).setValues([flightDetails]);

    }

  }

}

4. Don’t forget to edit your “API Key” in the code

4, Click the Save button 💾

5. Click Run ▶️ to execute the script

Note: – If you’re running the script for the first time, Google may ask you to authorize access to your Google Account.

• Click Review Permissions
• Select your Google Account
• Click Allow to grant script permissions

Once verified, the script will start pulling real-time flight data into your Output Sheet automatically! 

4. Verify the Execution & Check the Output

Once the script executes successfully, you’ll see an Execution Log confirming that the process has started and completed.

If everything is working correctly, check your Output Sheet—it will now contain flight details like departure airport, scheduled times, and arrival airport.

Download the Pre-Built Flight Data Extraction Blueprint

To save you time, I’ve prepared a Google Sheet with everything already set up—structured headers, pre-written Apps Script, and a dynamic input/output system.

What’s Inside?

• A structured Google Sheet with input & output headers
• The Apps Script pre-added—no need to write code
• Just search for “Replace This With Your API Key” in script and paste your actual API key there. That’s it, just fill up the required parameters and start extracting flight status data with ease.

Download the Blueprint 

Wrap Up:

You now have a fully automated Google Sheets flight tracker.

But FlightAPI offers more than just flight status tracking. You can also use it for:
✔ Comparing flight prices from multiple vendors
✔ Access full airport schedules

FlightAPI provides fast and flexible integration and 8000+ businesses are already using it. Get started with FlightAPI to extract flight-related data.