Flight mapping routes / Flight paths

[Snow_Owl]

I have been searching for sometime of a way of finding out specific flight paths taken by different airlines accross the world from destination to destination.

I've always wanted to know for example the towns I go over or which way I fly over a certain country.

Does anyone know if such a tool or website exists for most airlines and not only for the USA?

I'd be interested if with the help of air crews on pprune we could maybe use googleearth to develop a way of plotting flight paths accross the world.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you may have,

Tim.

[phineas]

If you know the flight number go to flightaware type it in and hit the Google earth button. I'm still gobsmacked everytime I do this. As others are better qualified to tell you flights don't always take the same route.

This is the second time today I've plugged flightaware, with whom I have no connection, but it can't see how it generates the significant income required

HTH

I've just realized the major flaw it only covers the US and UK

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Within busy areas like Europe and the USA routes taken daily by the same flight may vary due to traffic, weather or other reasons. Eg Airspace may be closed for military exercises. I have known traffic from London Area airports bound for Spain and Portugal to fly out over the Atlantic initially because of problems over France. Routes flown from Europe to the USA depend largely on Atlantic weather systems. One day a flight to Los Angeles may fly over north Scotland, next day it may fly over Northern Ireland or even much further south.

Once you get into busy terminal areas everything is radar controlled so there is every chance that on two consecutive days the routes taken by a particular flight may be completely different. For example, at very busy times aircraft which normally route to a particular holding area may be re-routed to another where there is less traffic.

It's more complex than that but that should give you some idea..

[merlinxx]

Spend some dosh !

Call your local Jeppesen stockist and get a a set of Euro/AF/ME High/Low charts, then get a full US set. Airways more or less stay the same for years, but this will give you hours of fun playtime on the floor of your rumpus room doing what we lot try to do in our pre planning stuff

Better still, chat up your local Charter Operator or chum within an airline and nick the out-of-date charts

Hey get them to give you the SIDs & STARs plates as well

[ConstantFlyer]

Plenty of out-of-date Jeppesen charts available on ebay at the mo.

[TG345]

Some interesting stuff published by a Lufthansa captain here:

Gerd Puppel