Tracking delivery and ferry flights: how to catch ferry flights

A brand-new long-haul jet with a fresh livery, a leased aircraft still in the colors of the old airline, a veteran on its last flight to the Spanish highlands: delivery and ferry flights are among the most exciting movements in the sky. They don’t appear in the flight schedule, follow no fixed route and are often over after a few hours. This guide shows you how to recognize ferry flights on the flight tracker, which places are typical as origin and destination and how to turn a chance find into a plannable sighting.

What is a ferry flight? The short answer

A ferry flight brings an aircraft from one place to another without paying passengers. On board there is usually only the crew, sometimes supplemented by technicians or airline representatives. For spotters, the flights can be roughly divided into four groups:

• Delivery flights: A new aircraft flies from the manufacturer’s plant to the airline’s home base.
• Operator changes: An aircraft moves to another airline after a lease ends or after a sale.
• Shop and paint flights: An aircraft flies to a maintenance facility, a paint hangar or a conversion, for example to a freighter.
• Retirement and storage: A jet flies to a storage or recycling center, either for parking or for dismantling.

What they all have in common: they are not in the public flight schedule. You find them through flight tracker data, registration histories and the community – and only rarely by chance exactly when you happen to be standing at the fence.

New aircraft: the route from factory to airline

Before a new airliner flies to its airline, it has a small flying career behind it. The procedure differs in detail by manufacturer but follows a similar pattern: the fully assembled aircraft completes one or more production test flights with the manufacturer’s crews. After that, the airline inspects the aircraft, including an acceptance flight. Only then do ownership and papers pass over, the aircraft gets its final registration – and sets off on the delivery flight.

How to recognize the flights before handover on the radar is described in detail in the guide Tracking test flights and factory flights. What matters most for you as a ferry hunter: if you see an aircraft’s test flights, you know the delivery is not far off.

Airbus: Toulouse, Hamburg, Tianjin, Mobile

Airbus operates delivery centers in Toulouse, Hamburg-Finkenwerder, Tianjin in China and Mobile in the US state of Alabama, among others; for the A220 there is also the plant in Mirabel near Montreal. Widebody aircraft such as the A350-900 go to customers in Toulouse, while A320-family aircraft such as the A321neo leave all four major sites.

Typical for Airbus are the test registrations: in Toulouse, new aircraft carry registrations from the F-WW… series, in Finkenwerder ones like D-AV… or D-AX…. On test flights a callsign with the prefix AIB often shows up. Only shortly before handover does the aircraft change to the airline’s registration. You can find more on the system in the article on manufacturer test registrations.

If you want to be on site: around Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, the spot at the Aeroscopia offers a view of the action, and tips for the whole region are in the guide Plane spotting in Toulouse. For the plant on the Elbe, the article Spotting Airbus Finkenwerder helps you.

Boeing: Everett, Seattle, North Charleston

At Boeing, deliveries are spread across several sites in the Seattle area and in South Carolina. The Delivery Center in Everett at Paine Field opened in 2013 and was designed for the widebody types. The 737 is mainly built in Renton and flies after its first flight to Boeing Field in Seattle, where the final work and further test flights take place before handover; some of the aircraft for Chinese customers are completed at a completion center in Zhoushan. The Boeing 787-9 and its siblings have been built by Boeing only in North Charleston since the 2020 decision.

For spotters on the road, the Future of Flight spot at Paine Field is a good address. From Europe you usually only see Boeing deliveries once they have already crossed the Atlantic – such as a new 737 MAX 8 on its way to a European airline.

Used aircraft: leasing, sale, shop

At least as exciting as new deliveries are transfers of used aircraft. A large part of the worldwide fleet belongs to leasing companies, which pass their aircraft on to the next customer after the contract ends. In between there are often shop visits, cabin conversions and a new livery. Why many of these aircraft are registered in Ireland, Bermuda or Malta in the meantime is explained in the article Offshore registrations and leasing.

This creates special subjects for you:

• Mixed liveries: An aircraft still flies in the old airline’s design but already with a new registration – or entirely in white after the old livery has been removed.
• Unfamiliar operators in unfamiliar places: An Asian or South American aircraft turns up at a maintenance airport in Europe.
• Shop visits: Maintenance companies such as Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg attract aircraft of many airlines that you would otherwise hardly get to see.

With such changes the registration often changes. How that works and how to follow an aircraft across several registrations is described in the guide Understanding re-registrations.

The last flight: retirement and storage

When an airline retires aircraft, many of them don’t fly directly to the scrapyard but first to a storage and recycling center. A dry climate slows corrosion, which is why such sites are often on plateaus or in deserts. In Europe, Teruel Airport in Spain is the best-known example: it has no passenger traffic and serves as a maintenance and storage base for the company Tarmac Aerosave, which also operates sites in Tarbes and Toulouse. You can find more background and further sites worldwide in the article on aircraft graveyards and boneyards.

A flight to Teruel is not a sure death sentence, though. Many aircraft are only parked there, maintained and later reactivated or sold to new operators. Only when an aircraft gives up engines there and isn’t moved for months does much speak for dismantling.

For spotters, the departure from the home airport is often more emotional than the arrival at the destination. Especially with types that an airline phases out completely – think of the farewells to four-engine aircraft such as the A380 at several airlines during the pandemic – many spotters gather for the last takeoff. How to plan such moments is explained in the guide Spotting farewell and first flights.

Recognizing ferry flights on the flight tracker

On the map, a ferry flight at first looks like any other flight. Only the details give it away. You should know these features:

Feature	What you see	What it can mean
Callsign	unusual number, manufacturer prefix or just the registration	test flight, delivery or ferry flight without a scheduled flight number
Departure airport	plant such as Toulouse, Finkenwerder, Everett, Boeing Field, North Charleston	new delivery, especially with a brand-new serial number
Destination airport	storage center or shop without the airline’s scheduled service	storage, retirement or maintenance
Registration	test registration or freshly changed country of registry	aircraft shortly before or after handover
Hex code	new code on the same aircraft	re-registration to another country
Route	stops in Iceland, in Canada or other fuel stops	range-limited ferry across the ocean

Especially important is the hex code. The 24-bit address by which an aircraft is recognizable via ADS-B comes from the address block of the country of registry. If the aircraft changes from a French test registration to a registration of another country, it usually gets a new address. What exactly is behind this is explained in the article ICAO 24-bit address (hex code). If you want to look for a specific aircraft, you’ll find the right tools in the guide Tracking an aircraft by registration.

It also helps to look at the callsign. On ferry flights, airlines often use special numbers instead of regular flight numbers, and some flights simply operate under the registration. The difference between the two is explained in the article Callsign and flight number.

Route and range: why ferry flights take detours

A ferry flight doesn’t always follow the shortest line. Widebody aircraft usually fly their delivery nonstop, even across oceans. For twinjets over water, the ETOPS rules apply, which determine how far the aircraft may be from a suitable alternate airport – details in the article ETOPS explained.

Smaller aircraft with limited range, such as turboprops or regional jets, on the other hand often cross the North Atlantic in several legs. Stops in Iceland, Greenland or Canada are common. For European spotters that means: at Keflavik Airport, unusual guests keep turning up that refuel on the way between North America and Europe.

Aircraft whose airworthiness certificate is temporarily not valid can also be ferried. Within EASA’s remit there is the permit to fly for this, which is issued for particular purposes and under defined conditions – for example for the flight to a workshop. Such flights can come with restrictions, for example on altitude or distance, which sometimes shows on the radar as unusual profiles.

How to plan your ferry sighting step by step

Ferry flights are rarely announced weeks ahead. With a fixed routine you still raise your chances considerably.

Important for step 5: on arrival at the home base there is sometimes a water cannon salute from the airport fire service, and the new aircraft is parked at a highly visible position. These are the moments many spotters associate with ferry flights.

Which ferry hunt suits you?

Not every spotter has the same options. Depending on where you live and your time budget, different strategies pay off.

What to keep in mind

• Verify rumors. Many delivery dates circulate online. Only what the airline itself confirms or what shows on the radar is reliable.
• Allow for registration changes. An aircraft can use two different registrations and hex codes within a few days. If you watch only one value, you miss half.
• Mind time zones. Deliveries from the USA or China often land in Europe at unusual times.
• Not every transfer is a farewell. Before you share a flight to Teruel or Tarbes as a “last flight,” check whether the aircraft is only being parked.
• Safety before the picture. Even at special arrivals the rule applies: public paths and designated areas, no climbing fences. More on this in the article Is plane spotting legal?.

Conclusion

Delivery and ferry flights are the movements no flight schedule knows – and that is exactly why they are so appealing. If you know where new aircraft depart, which places are typical destinations for retired jets and how registrations and hex codes jump at an operator change, you no longer find ferry flights only by chance. Test flights around the factory are your early warning system, and alerts on registration and type do the rest. And if it doesn’t work out, the flight track remains: it too is a piece of the aircraft’s history.