uta999 From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2010, 18 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1375 times:
Looking on Flightradar24 I am interested to see the rather odd routing that most flights use from Western Europe to SE Asia and Australia. It is extremely busy and not that direct, being too far north.
They all seem to use a very narrow airway from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf, passing Mosul, Baghdad, Basra and Kuwait. There appears to be a ban on overflights of both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as the only flights there are local, or other Gulf carriers. Flights to Africa pass over both countries, but not western carriers to Asia and Australia. Why?
Which countries currently ban overflights and why? Is it due to political, threats, military activity, or just a cheaper routing.
Is it more economic to fly over Northern Europe, through the old Eastern Bloc, than down through France, Italy and over the Adriatic and Eastern Med?
gemuser From Australia, joined Nov 2003, 5217 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1280 times:
Quoting uta999 (Thread starter): to see the rather odd routing that most flights use from Western Europe to SE Asia and Australia. It is extremely busy and not that direct, being too far north.
It is indirect, BUT is too far SOUTH, not north. The GC route LHR-SIN passes north of the Black Sea over various 'Stans into India north of DEL. This route is 5879 nm long, via KWI it is 6134 nm, 254 nm longer. Not a great difference in such a distance.
Never look at a Mercator projection map for anything over 3000 nm if you want an accurate look at the route, use this:
mandala499 From Indonesia, joined Aug 2001, 6180 posts, RR: 74 Reply 2, posted (2 months 2 weeks 6 days ago) and read 735 times:
The simple explanation is the airways structure, and the winds.
Those routes are often the shortest even though it looks weird.
Once you want to go Europe to Australia, you'd think that going over HKG is the shortest on the GC route, but, once you take the airways structure into account, going via Singapore/KL/that area, is the shortest.
Going eastbound, you'd get a nice tailwind over Iran...
When losing situational awareness, pray Cumulus Granitus isn't nearby !
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