A couple of FPL questions
In no particular order:
1. Does anybody know how much an operator is charged for filing a FPL. I mean by Eurocontrol etc, as opposed to per/FPL on different planning software.
2. Are operators obliged to follow airways? For example, in my area radar days we occasionally had jets come out of MAN, heading east, where they would turn right 'cross country' through the big triangular gap in the airways and join controlled airspace somewhere south of G1. We were also kept fairly busy with all sorts of a/c criss-crossing this chunk of airspace - hence the need for ATC - but why don't, say LBA departures just cross this gap and save fuel? (I'll add that I was doing area radar around 1991, before Europe seized control).
3. Does submission of a FPL mean I have to use Eurocontrol's airways structure? Obviously if I do use airways I have to go the right way at the right height, but can I (perhaps stupidly) opt out and ask for a radar service from one radar unit to another?
eg. If I want to go Oxford to Bournemouth there are no airways. The pilot of a trip asked me to file a FPL, not least to makes sure he was 'in the system' on a dark and windy night, on the edge of everyone's opening hours. I filed DCT SAM, only to have Eurocontrol amend this to DCT CPT DCT. What have they achieved, apart from increasing my burn?