LABSCO SUMMARY

Four questions, answered from live data instead of a search engine.

Asking when a specific flight lands, or what is currently in the air over a region, is the kind of question a web search answers badly and a live feed answers exactly — and here it happens inside the conversation you are already in. The cost is the data, not the software: the API needs a Flightradar24 subscription, and without a valid key nothing responds.

What it is

A small MCP server that puts Flightradar24's live flight data behind a Claude Desktop conversation, so questions about specific flights and airports are answered from real-time data.

What you get

Real-time tracking of a named flight
Arrival and departure times for a specific flight
The status of flights at an airport
Monitoring for aircraft that have declared an emergency

Requirements

A Flightradar24 API key, which is a paid subscription. Clone the repository, install and build with npm, then set FR24_API_KEY and FR24_API_URL in your client config and restart it. Use the full absolute path to the built entry point — a relative path is the most common reason the client cannot connect.

Setup effort

One command plus a key — npx -y flightradar24-mcp-server, then supply credentials

See installation options

USE CASES

01

Meeting someone at the airport

Ask for the flight's status and arrival time rather than refreshing a tracking page.

02

Checking whether an airport is backed up

Ask what is currently arriving there before you set off.

03

Following unusual traffic

Ask whether anything in a region has declared an emergency.

BEFORE YOU INSTALL

What to know first

Requires

npx on PATH
FR24_API_KEY in your environment

Where it runs

The documented client runs the server on your machine.

INSTALLATION

Connect your client

Server setup

TERMINAL

npx -y flightradar24-mcp-server

MCP Clients

Claude Desktop

CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flightradar24-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/Users/<YOUR_USERNAME>/<YOUR_FULL_PATH>/flightradar24-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FR24_API_KEY": "<YOUR_FR24_API_KEY>",
        "FR24_API_URL": "https://fr24api.flightradar24.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Flightradar24