A “proposed flight” is a flight plan that has been filed with air traffic control but has not yet been activated. The plane hasn’t taken off, and in many cases, it hasn’t even started its engines. Think of it as a reservation for airspace: the pilot (or airline) has told the system where they intend to fly and when, but the actual flight hasn’t begun.
If you’re seeing this status on a flight tracking website, it almost always refers to a private or charter aircraft rather than a commercial airline flight. Here’s what’s actually going on behind that label.
Proposed vs. Scheduled vs. Active
Flight tracking platforms pull data from air traffic control systems, and each flight moves through a series of statuses. The three you’re most likely to encounter are:
- Scheduled: A commercial airline flight that appears on the carrier’s published timetable. This is the status you’ll see for normal passenger flights before departure.
- Proposed: A general aviation flight (private planes, charters, corporate jets) where a flight plan has been filed for a specific route. The pilot intends to fly but hasn’t departed yet.
- Active: The flight is airborne or has otherwise been activated in the system.
The key distinction is that “scheduled” applies to airline flights with published schedules, while “proposed” applies to general aviation flights that don’t appear on any airline timetable. If you’re tracking a friend’s private flight or a charter and it shows “proposed,” that simply means the pilot has filed paperwork but the plane is still on the ground.
How a Flight Plan Gets Filed
Before most flights, a pilot submits a flight plan to the FAA (or the equivalent authority in other countries). This document includes the departure airport, destination, planned route, altitude, estimated departure time, and other details. Once submitted, the flight sits in the system as “proposed.”
Internationally, flight plans can be filed up to 120 hours (five days) before the estimated departure time. For flights subject to air traffic flow management, the basic plan needs to be in the system at least 60 minutes before departure. So a flight can show as “proposed” well before anyone is even at the airport.
What Triggers the Status to Change
A proposed flight becomes “active” when the pilot reports their departure to the appropriate air traffic facility. For instrument flight plans, this typically happens automatically when the plane enters the radar system. For visual (VFR) flight plans, the pilot needs to contact a flight service station and specifically request activation, often by radio shortly after takeoff.
There’s an interesting fallback built into the system. If a pilot can’t communicate after departure (due to limited radio coverage in remote areas, for example), the FAA will automatically activate the flight plan using the proposed departure time as the actual departure time. This ensures the flight is tracked even when the pilot can’t check in.
When a Proposed Flight Disappears
A proposed flight plan doesn’t stay in the system forever. If the pilot never departs or never activates the plan, the FAA automatically deletes it two hours after the proposed departure time. At that point, the system assumes the flight isn’t happening.
A pilot can also cancel a proposed flight plan before departure. In FAA terminology, a “canceled” flight plan is one removed from the proposed list without ever being activated, while a “closed” flight plan is one that was activated and then ended after the flight landed. If a flight you were tracking simply vanishes from the tracking site, the pilot likely canceled the plan or it expired.
What This Means If You’re Tracking a Flight
If you searched for a specific flight and see “proposed,” the practical takeaway is straightforward: the flight is planned but hasn’t left yet. You won’t see real-time position data because the aircraft isn’t transmitting location information through its transponder.
Once the plane departs and the plan becomes active, the tracking site will begin showing the aircraft’s position, altitude, speed, and estimated arrival time. Until then, the only information available is what the pilot included in the filed plan: the departure point, destination, and estimated time of departure.
For commercial airline passengers, you’re unlikely to encounter this status. Airline flights show as “scheduled” until they depart, then move to “active” or equivalent labels like “en route.” The “proposed” label is specific to general aviation, so you’ll typically see it only when tracking private, corporate, or charter flights.