43
votes
Why did my IAH-SYD flight avoid Mexican airspace?
Though routing this far north seems to make the flight about 200 miles longer, flight duration doesn't exactly correlate to route length. For a flight this long, wind plays a large role.
Take a look ...
- 71.8k
43
votes
Why would a flight from Frankfurt to Madrid fly over London?
I can't be completely sure but the most likely reason is a planned strike by ATC in south-east France. It was planned from the 30th of June to the 1st or 2nd (depending on the source) of July, meaning ...
- 71.6k
36
votes
Accepted
Why did our flight avoid the Black Sea?
In 2014, flight MH17 from Amsterdam, en-route to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by the Russian military during their clandestine operation in the east of Ukraine. Airlines are very cautious with active ...
- 82.9k
23
votes
Accepted
Why don't aircraft fly direct via oceanic airspace from UK to Iceland?
I don't think they are specifically avoiding Shanwick Oceanic airspace. The reason seems to be related to the airways in the Scottish airspace. In general, you have to file a route using airways when ...
- 54.3k
19
votes
Are there passenger flights with stops in the middle?
These "direct" flights are actually not unusual, at least in the US. I was surprised by this discovery based on the routes I personally tend to fly, but fortunately we have the Bureau of ...
- 3,367
16
votes
What was the flight route from New York to Paris that Air France took in 1955?
The route was IdleWild (renamed JFK in 1963) or LaGuardia -> Gander, Canada -> Shannon, Ireland -> Paris. The trip took a total of about 18 hours going eastbound with tailwinds, and 24 hours going ...
- 12.6k
16
votes
What routes are available for airliners to fly from Europe to Japan without entering Russian airspace?
While it won't be the most efficient or direct routes, flights would be redirected South of Russian airspace.
They're probably avoiding Ukrainian air space too, just to be on the safe side. A quick ...
- 15.6k
13
votes
Are there passenger flights with stops in the middle?
These are known as “direct” flights. They aren’t popular because each stop adds an hour or more to the travel time for through passengers, so they are significantly slower than non-stop flights yet ...
- 27.6k
13
votes
Why did our flight avoid the Black Sea?
This is from flightradar24.com, just now. UTC 15:09, 14/06/2022
Everyone is avoiding the Black Sea, or at most, only crossing the southern 1/4.
The lone aircraft you see in the middle, circled in red ...
- 7,568
9
votes
Accepted
Why is Iceland an efficient connection point between London and Boston/NYC?
One of the benefits of having a stop halfway is that the aircraft can refuel.
It therefor doesn't have to carry the fuel for the second half of the flight during the first half, which saves fuel.
...
- 82.9k
9
votes
Why is this Jordan–Afghanistan flight avoiding airspaces in the Middle East despite being used by other flights?
State aircraft - especially Military - do not have the ICAO freedoms of the air. They must apply for diplomatic clearance to transit the airspace of a foreign country. Often this takes days or ...
- 1,112
8
votes
Accepted
Why would a flight from Frankfurt to Madrid fly over London?
I was on that flight, it was due to the ATC strike in France. I remember that flight till now. The pilot said, that if we fly around France, then we can take off immediately, if we go over France, we ...
- 96
7
votes
Do stratospheric business and military jets use the North Atlantic Tracks?
The tropopause is in the low to mid 30s in the mid-north latitudes that the NATs reside (and is in the 20s in the arctic in winter) so an airliner crossing on a NAT at 55 DegN at FL370 will be well ...
- 126k
7
votes
What routes are available for airliners to fly from Europe to Japan without entering Russian airspace?
Another option would be to fly over the pole to Anchorage (4450 miles = 7160 km) and from there to Tokyo (3466 miles = 5577 km). This combined distance (plus a fuel stop) of just over 7900 miles (...
- 17k
6
votes
What is the name of the format of route with the dots? Eg. DTW..LAYNE.DXO006 (...)
This is an ATC routing format, introduced long ago, with the IBM 9020 mainframe. The dots are element separators, used because spaces would signify a new field in the flight plan. Two dots separate ...
- 1,514
6
votes
Why would a flight take a detour on clean weather?
There are lots of reasons flights may not take a direct route, some are but not limited to:
It's just the route ATC assigned (for whatever reason they see fit)
There is an active military operations ...
- 100k
6
votes
Are there passenger flights with stops in the middle?
Yes, such arrangements are not uncommon in routes served by commuter airlines and smaller regional carriers. At a stop, the "through" passengers remain seated while others deplane and new ...
- 20.7k
6
votes
Why is this Jordan–Afghanistan flight avoiding airspaces in the Middle East despite being used by other flights?
Thanks to @Arkhem for suggesting a government flight. Upvote him/her post if you wish, it contains the exact reason for not flying over certain areas, I'm just adding a complement to this answer.
It'...
- 71k
5
votes
Are there passenger flights with stops in the middle?
As others have pointed out, “direct“ flights do exist. The airline will have the same plane travel from one city to another with a stop or two along the way. On those flights some passengers will ...
- 16.5k
5
votes
Why is Iceland an efficient connection point between London and Boston/NYC?
Iceland is a perfect transatlantic hub. Most importantly, it makes single connection flights efficient between nearly all European and North American cities. Fuel and equipment advantages have already ...
- 19k
5
votes
Changing SID without changing the flight plan
The SID is normally assigned by the approach controller, not the scheduler, as SIDs are runway dependent and may change at a moment's notice with changing runways and because of noise abatement ...
- 15.9k
4
votes
Why is Iceland an efficient connection point between London and Boston/NYC?
It is part of a larger effort to boost Icelandic Tourism and has more to do with the economic condition of Iceland (of which tourism makes up 42% of their economy) than aviation for the most part. ...
- 100k
4
votes
Why would a flight from Frankfurt to Madrid fly over London?
Not having been there I can't tell for sure, but I would guess congestion.
For safety reasons, the number of flights handled by one controller, and thus flying through their sector, in an hour is ...
- 56.2k
4
votes
What might this P-68 be doing?
According to the pattern and altitude, this aircraft is probably doing aerial photography or 3D mapping (or both !) for services like Google Maps or Apple Plans.
The Partenavia P-68 Observer is ...
- 1,880
4
votes
In 1997, what would the likely Paris–Tokyo route be? Generally, where to gain information on historic routes?
I think what you want for this question,and other similar ones, are old copies of "The ABC World Airways Guide" .
This image, from a 1991 copy, gives you some sense of what was contained ...
- 1,653
3
votes
Are there passenger flights with stops in the middle?
That's just because of your city-pairs.
What you're really saying is "Everytime I fly, I must go to an intermediate "hub" airport and change planes". That's not true for everyone, ...
3
votes
Are there passenger flights with stops in the middle?
why are they so unusual?
You could turn the question around and ask why bus and train companies run sectors where the vehicle is mostly empty and making a loss. Often it's because the city requires a ...
- 3,353
3
votes
What are the FAI rules for circumnavigating the world?
"mins" linked to a set of rules at https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/documents/sc_section_2_2013.pdf , I will try to interpret these in light of your question. I do not take any position on ...
- 1,671
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible