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Finding the departure gate of any flight in real time is not a big deal, however arrival gates are more tricky. I checked at least four airport websites, and none of them provides such details. Is there a general way to obtain such information? I don't need real-time information, some recent historic data should be perfectly sufficient.

Of course, I understand that gates change all the time, especially for arrivals, but I'd like to have a ballpark idea where the arrival gate would be -- most airports have separate gate groups for domestic, Schengen and international flights, and these tend to be bunched together, so going from one to another takes no time at all. However, transferring between different gate groups might take significant time on some airports.

As to why I need it -- my girlfriend and myself are flying from different locations to the same destination with a small time interval within our flights, and I'd like to surprise her right after she passes border control.

Finally, if no general information is available, information about arrival gates on Vienna International Airport (VIE) is enough.

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    Why not ask to one of the ground stewardesses when you leave the plane? They have access to recent data, and with your story, they'll probably help you.
    – Bernhard
    Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 15:04
  • @Bernhard: Yeah, if all else fails, that's the plan :-) Still, I like to be prepared.
    – mindcorrosive
    Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 15:07
  • Also, typically arrival gate == departure gate for the next return flight.
    – vartec
    Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 15:41
  • or continuing flight to another destination... If the aircraft isn't pulled off the line for cleaning or maintenance. Or moved to another gate because the one it's at is needed for a specific aircraft type (e.g. it's a gate with more room so it can take a 747 which doesn't fit at any other free gate).
    – jwenting
    Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 17:36
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    and of arrival gates are highly volatile. Especially at larger, busy, airports an aircraft may not know its arrival gate until after they've landed.
    – jwenting
    Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 17:37

3 Answers 3

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For when you do need real-time data on arrivals gates, Google provides it inline with search results when you search for a particular flight. It works well in a mobile browser, too.

enter image description here

I've found these flight results to be very reliable, and even more up-to-date than the information available from the airlines themselves (caveat, I've only tried it with domestic US flights).

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    My local Google (Dutch) does not support this (yet). Using US Google, google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=nw , does.
    – Bernhard
    Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 8:49
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    For the sake of keeping information here up to date: as of today, Google still doesn't show arrival gate for a flight landed in Frankfurt 1 hour ago (while showing actual arrival time precisely), while arrivals section of Frankfurt airport's website specifies the gate fully. Flight considered: LH1445 (Lufthansa, Moscow to Frankfurt).
    – yurkennis
    Commented Apr 22, 2018 at 15:14
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The data on arrival gates that is published online has a big problem-it is often inaccurate because the arrival gates get changed a lot. A previous flight out may be delayed so a gate hasn't been freed up; similarly if the flight in is delayed or may have missed its assigned slot etc.

So your best two options are:

  • Look at the arrivals board if they have one airside. Some airports do, some don't.
  • Ask a member of airport staff
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You can find information on flightstats.com

I couldn't find such a information for the Vienna airports and the reason seems to be that there is only one arrival gate. Take a look at the airport plan: airport plan

It seems that the arrival zone is small and all of the passengers are going out there

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    yup, if you read the caption, it's written the distance between the 2 arrival corridors is about 150m (max 200m)
    – Vince
    Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 15:35
  • For the sake of keeping information here up to date: as of today, FlightStats still doesn't show arrival gate for a flight landed in Frankfurt 1 hour ago today (while showing actual arrival time precisely, similar to Google), while arrivals section of Frankfurt airport's website specifies the gate fully. And the "Historical flight status" section is a "professional subscription feature". Flight considered: LH1445 (Lufthansa, Moscow to Frankfurt).
    – yurkennis
    Commented Apr 22, 2018 at 15:19

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