KLM: Schiphol - Johannesburg OR Tambo
 

Afternoon all

I fly irregularly between Schiphol and Johannesburg. About 2 years ago (and for an indefinite period before that), the flights used to leave Amsterdam, fly over Italy and down the Eastern side of Africa to about Zimbabwe, loop over Botswana and land in Johannesburg. However, the last flight (same flight number as always) left Amsterdam, flew over Paris and headed down the WESTERN side (Lake Chad, CAR, Zaire and Angola) before looping south of Johannesburg to land. I expect that this has to do with the Star Alliance deal, and KLM use the Air France route when the weather demands, but can someone confirm this?

*** Edit: previous flights have been October/November, last flight was eo December if that helps ***

I did ask the chief Purser who was going to find out for me, but she never came back with any answers.

I would imagine it has nothing whatsoever to do with commercial alliances and everything to do with weather and air traffic conditions.

I fly KLM from Schiphol to CPT fairly often and the route varies similarly. In the same way, departures out of CPT to Europe often turn south and head across the peninsula going overhead Constantia and then up the west side of the peninsula, but for the last couple of days they've been heading north and tracking over Bellville and out to sea near Blouberg.

That brings a few memories back Capetonian...especially Blouberg :ooh:The overhead Constantia route is the one we have usually taken on departure as well....Trust you are well??

The change in routing is mainly because we don't overfly Libya anymore...

Thanks, 0A - is it not more dangerous to overfly Chad and CAR, or is it because the overfly over Libya is no longer valid?

Because of security concerns Libyan airspace has effectively been closed for all carriers for months now.