Southwest flight tracker: check any WN flight status live

Track every flight worldwide here: Flight Radar.

To track a Southwest flight right now, use the live radar at the top of this page, a view of our worldwide flight radar filtered to Southwest aircraft. Enter a flight number such as WN 1450 in the search box, or click an aircraft symbol to open the flight details: departure and destination, current position, altitude, speed and the estimated arrival time. Southwest operates thousands of departures a day across North and Central America, the Caribbean and Hawaii, and receiver coverage over the continental United States is nearly gapless, so a WN flight stays visible from shortly after takeoff until the landing roll.

WN, SWA and how to read a Southwest flight number

A Southwest flight number is the airline code WN followed by one to four digits: WN 4, WN 428, WN 2183. You will find it in your confirmation email, on your boarding pass and in the Southwest app on your trip page. Air traffic control uses a different code for the same flight: the callsign SWA, spoken as “Southwest”. If the radar shows SWA428, that is WN 428. This double naming explains what people type into search engines: sw flight status and swa flight status point to the same WN flights, and so does southwestern flight status, because the airline is called Southwest Airlines, not Southwestern.

Southwest also keeps its numbering simpler than any other large US carrier: Southwest does not codeshare, and it has no regional subsidiaries. There is no Southwest Eagle or Southwest Express, and no partner airline sells WN flights under its own code. Every WN flight is flown by Southwest itself, so the number on your ticket is always the number on the radar.

Southwest’s first transatlantic partnership, started in 2025 with Icelandair, follows that same rule, because it is an interline agreement rather than a codeshare. Book a trip to Iceland or onward into Europe through Icelandair, connecting at Baltimore-Washington, Nashville or Denver, and each leg keeps the number of the airline that flies it: a WN number inside the United States, an FI number for the ocean crossing, both listed in your booking details.

Is my Southwest flight on time?

Search your flight number and read the status label, but read it with Southwest’s schedule in mind: a typical Southwest 737 flies five or six short legs a day with turnarounds of well under an hour. Scheduled means your flight has not departed; at Southwest that often simply means your aircraft is still out flying an earlier leg, so an empty map is no cause for alarm. En route means it is airborne, and from that moment the arrival estimate follows the aircraft’s real position and speed rather than the timetable. Delayed is rarely an isolated event here: a morning delay travels with the aircraft for the rest of its day. Landed means the wheels are on the runway, with the actual arrival time.

The tracker turns that rhythm into an early warning. Look up where the aircraft for your flight is coming from: if that inbound leg is still en route around your boarding time, a delay is on its way, even while the app still says on time. For anyone waiting at Midway, Love Field or another Southwest station: count 30 to 45 minutes between landing and the moment your traveler reaches the curb. Taxi-in, deplaning and baggage claim sit between the two.

Fleet spotting: one aircraft type, three versions

Southwest is the largest Boeing 737 operator in the world and flies nothing else. Where JetBlue built its fleet around Airbus, Southwest went all-in on a single Boeing type: roughly 800 aircraft in three versions, the 737-700, the 737-800 and the 737 MAX 8. There are no wide-bodies and no regional jets anywhere in the fleet.

All of them show the same silhouette and the same blue, red and yellow livery with a heart on the belly. To tell the versions apart, click the aircraft on the radar: the flight details show the exact type. The MAX 8 flies the longest routes, including the Hawaii crossings, while the older 737-700 gradually leaves the fleet as new MAX aircraft arrive.

No hubs: reading the point-to-point map

American Airlines funnels its passengers through fortress hubs such as Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte, with waves of arrivals and departures that pulse on the radar. Southwest works differently. Its network is point-to-point: most passengers fly nonstop, and no single airport dominates the system. On the map this shows up as an even spread of SWA callsigns across the whole country at almost any hour, instead of dense clusters around one city.

Southwest does have busy stations, led by Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Chicago Midway, Baltimore, Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby, Orlando and Nashville. Note the airport names: in several cities Southwest deliberately serves the secondary field. In Chicago that is Midway rather than O’Hare, in Dallas it is Love Field rather than DFW, and in Houston it is Hobby rather than Bush Intercontinental. If you are meeting a Southwest flight, double-check which airport you need to drive to.

A leftover of the point-to-point model is the through-flight: one flight number that makes an intermediate stop and continues. A single WN number can run from San Diego to Houston Hobby and carry on to Nashville. On the radar you will see the flight land, go quiet for roughly half an hour and reappear under the same number.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my Southwest flight number change halfway through my trip?
If your itinerary has a connection, the two legs are separate flights with separate numbers, even if you stay on the same aircraft. The reverse also exists: on a through-flight the number stays the same across a stop, but the aircraft can be swapped there. Look up each leg separately and you will always follow the right aircraft.

Why does Southwest fly to Midway, Love Field and Hobby instead of the main airports?
Secondary airports are less congested, cheaper and faster for turning an aircraft around, which suits Southwest’s short-leg model. Dallas Love Field is also company history: Southwest started there in 1971 and never left, even while federal law restricted long nonstop flights from the field.

How can Southwest fly to Hawaii with only Boeing 737s?
The 737-800 and MAX 8 are certified for extended overwater operations, known as ETOPS, which allows the five to six hour crossing from the West Coast. On the radar you can follow a Southwest 737 from California all the way to Honolulu, Maui, Kauai or the Big Island.

I booked through Icelandair. Which flight number do I track?
Track each leg under its operating airline: the WN number for the Southwest flight inside the United States, the FI number for the Icelandair crossing. Both numbers are listed in your Icelandair booking confirmation.