A novel velocimetry method is proposed for point velocity measurement, which is based on tracking a laser-induced plasma in a flow. The plasma’s behaviour is first analysed spatially, temporally and spectrally in quiescent air. The dependence of this technique on the delay time between subsequent plasma images and the processing methods are described. It is found that, for optimized operation of the technique in a turbulent air jet (exit diameter 10.0 mm from a 480 mm long pipe; with an averaged velocity of 50 m/s at the jet exit resulting in Reynolds number of 34,000) with 100 µs time delay between plasma images, the systematic and random components of the velocity uncertainty are − 0.51 m/s and ± 3.6 m/s along the laser beam direction, and 1.25 m/s and ± 0.86 m/s along other directions perpendicular to the laser beam. These uncertainties are mainly caused by the asymmetric laser energy deposition during the formation of plasma, and the associated spatial resolution (in this realisation of the instrument) of 5 mm. The mean velocity measurements in the turbulent air jet flow are consistent with the reported flow behaviour in the literature for mean velocity: the turbulent intensity of axial velocity fluctuations is comparable to those in the literature but difference arises due to the limited spatial resolution. This velocimetry method is an alternative to traditional tracer-based velocimetry methods, because it does not require ‘seeding’ of particles or other substances in the flow. It also has the ability to measure local gas mixture composition, using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy approach, simultaneously with flow velocity, but this aspect is not explored in the current study.