Originally Posted by
jensdad
Good thinking. I've commented here previously about some of the very illogical routings of the various Antonovs that tramp around Europe (One routing something like East Mids to Gothenburg routed over Newcastle I seem to recall) but it never occurred to me that it might actually be UK ATC directing them away from things rather than the crew directing them towards things!
If it was Mon-Friday, the D323 complex in the North Sea may have been active and as such, a direct route across towards Gothenburg wouldn't have been available. Options would be to route out over East Anglia and a sharp left turn up towards Copenhagen, or over Newcastle and then NE towards Gothenburg.