Flight Tracking System

Inspiration

Flight anxiety is real, especially when gate changes, delays, or cancellations hit you last minute. We’ve all seen that one confused traveller staring at the departure board or frantically refreshing airline apps. That’s where the idea for SkyMate came in: to make flight status tracking simpler, smarter, and a bit more personal.

What it does

SkyMate lets users check the live status of flights by entering basic flight information like flight number, origin, and destination. Once entered, the app instantly displays the flight's current status (e.g., On Time, Delayed, Cancelled) in a clean and welcoming interface. It also includes built-in validation and loading indicators to make the experience smooth.

How we built it

Frontend/UI: Built using Tkinter with custom styling and background image integration using PIL.

Backend Logic: Real-time simulated flight data is matched through dictionary lookups.

Async Functionality: We used threading to prevent the UI from freezing while checking the flight status.

Architecture: Follows a modular design, separating UI, data lookup, validation, and error handling (as shown in our architecture diagram).

Challenges we ran into

Getting the UI elements (entry boxes, status labels) to feel intuitive and beginner-friendly.

Managing placeholder logic and real-time validation in Tkinter was a bit tricky, especially with focus events.

Avoiding hard crashes when inputs were invalid required some solid error-handling routines.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a smooth and responsive GUI flight tracker in Python with no lag or blocking.

Got great feedback from users who said it “just works”, exactly what we aimed for.

Finished the full flow, input, check, validate, load, and display, with a clear structure in a limited time.

What we learned

How to manage state and placeholders properly in GUI-based apps.

Importance of structuring a project with clear separation of concerns, validation, loading, user input, and data display.

Improved our understanding of UI/UX in Python, especially with beginner-friendly design.

What's next for Flight Tracking System

Live API Integration: Pulling actual flight data from sources like AviationStack or FlightAware.

Mobile Version: Port the tool to React Native or Flutter for on-the-go travellers.

Alert System: Push notifications and email alerts for flight changes.

Airline Partner Mode: Enables airlines to plug in their schedules and integrate loyalty accounts.

Built With

• macos
• pillow
• python
• threading
• tkinter
• vscode