A flag-carrier airline started using data from hobbyists' rooftops

Flight-tracking data is effectively a duopoly, sold at institutional prices, and its coverage follows the money, which means blind spots over sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, island states and ocean approaches. Those are precisely the regions where better coverage matters most for search-and-rescue.

Wingbits pays people to run cheap ADS-B receivers and fill those gaps. The network grew from 2,000 stations to over 5,000 during 2025, tracking around 150,000 flights a day across 4,500+ contributors. In September 2025 Korean Air became its first major airline partner, feeding Wingbits data into research on its ACROSS air-traffic-control system. Spire Global, a NYSE-listed space-data company, is also a named customer.