How are flight routes planned?

Flight and route planning, based on two important matters, namely fuel calculation, to ensure the safe arrival of the aircraft to the destination, and compliance with air traffic control requirements.

In addition, trip planners usually want to reduce the cost of the trip by choosing the right route, altitude and speed.

Safety regulations require that aircraft carry fuel exceeding the minimum required to fly from the point of departure to the destination, in the event of unforeseen circumstances or in the event of transfer to another airport.

Aircraft flying in controlled airspace must follow predetermined routes known as airways. Even if these routes are not as economically suitable as direct flight, the aircraft must maintain flight levels.

When twin-engine aircraft only fly long distances across oceans, deserts, or other areas where there are no airports, they must meet additional safety rules for "ETOPS" to ensure that they are able to reach an "emergency" airport in the event that one of the engines fails.

An accurate and optimized flight plan requires many calculations, so commercial flight planning systems widely use computers.

A flight planning system may need to produce more than one flight plan for one flight, such as a summary air traffic control plan, another for an in-flight flight management system, as well as a detailed third plan for use by pilots.

The primary purpose of a flight planning system is to calculate the amount of flight fuel an aircraft needs in the air navigation process when flying.

Aircraft must also carry some spare fuel to allow for unforeseen circumstances, such as inaccurate weather forecasting, or air traffic control requiring the aircraft to fly at a less than optimal altitude due to congestion.

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