Jessie KohWith many airlines rerouting their flights after the tragic crash of MH17 in Ukraine, it will be important for you to understand what these changes mean, especially if you are travelling in the near future. More fundamentally, you should be aware of how flight plans are decided and how to check your flight routes.
How airlines decide flight routes
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To start off, we need to understand how airlines decide their flight plans. Ideally, flights would just fly directly from origin to destination, taking the shortest flight path in order to save time and fuel. However, there are also many other factors to consider, ranging from weather to air traffic, and all these different components come into play when airlines make flight plans.
Airlines then “depend on governments and air traffic control authorities to advise which airspace is available for flight, and they plan within those limits”, said Tony Tyler, the director general of the International Air Travel Association. The decision to fly over conflict zones, as MH17 did, is not an unusual one, especially when aviation authorities have declared the airspace in question as “safe”.
In such cases, it would be down to each airline’s individual risk assessment and subsequent policy regarding where and where not to fly. While some airlines may exercise caution and divert around potentially dangerous areas, others may choose to prioritise efficiency and continue to fly over conflict zones.
How to check your flight route
Due to security reasons and because routes often deviate, airlines do not disclose exact flight routes. However, what you can do is look up previous flights to get an idea of how your flight route may be like. While deviations are likely (due to weather or other factors), flight plans are expected to remain largely similar, especially when they are frequently flown flights.
Image credits: Flightradar24
As flight numbers are designated based on their routes, this number will help you to check your flight route. Using your flight number to look up flight history on flight tracking sites like Flightradar24 can show you the previous routes taken by your flight. These previous routes will be a good indication of future planned paths, and is thus a way for you to check your flight route.
If you’re looking to check on your friends’ and family members’ flight routes on-the-go, phone applications are also available – simply search by flight number, airport or airline to get a real-time map of individual flights, together with information such as estimated arrival time and terminal information. We’ve put together a short list of flight tracking apps right below:
Image credits: Flightradar24
Flight route diversions
The planned path that MH17 took over Eastern Ukraine is known as airway L980, one of the most popular air routes between major cities in Europe and Asia. After MH17’s crash, many airlines quickly made the decision to reroute their flights to avoid the tumultuous area, with some choosing to steer clear of Ukrainian airspace entirely.
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How would these flight diversions announced by airlines affect travellers? Thankfully, travel plans are unlikely to be heavily affected by these flight reroutes. Route deviations may lengthen flight durations, but it is likely to be a negligible amount of time. Airlines are also expected to absorb the extra fuel costs, meaning that the cost of flying should remain the same.
While the negative impact on travellers is likely to be minimal, it may still be a good idea to check the flight routes taken by various airlines before booking your flights!
