FlightPlanner

×

How to Use FlightPlanner

Getting Started

1. On the Auto tab, enter departure and arrival ICAO codes (e.g. YSSY, KDFW, EGLL, RJTT). IATA codes (SYD, LHR) are converted when you leave the field.
2. Set EOBT (UTC) — the departure time, today, in 24-hour UTC: type 0930 or 21:45 (defaults to 15 minutes from now). It decides which winds, runways and time-limited route rules apply.
3. Click Calculate Route. The route appears on the 3D globe with the full route string, details and (with an aircraft) the operational flight plan.

A link with ?dep=EGLL&arr=KJFK opens the site and calculates that route straight away.

The status bar under the title shows Systems (map and data loaded) and the AIRAC navdata cycle: green while it is current, amber in its last 3 days, red once a newer cycle is in force. Hover over it for the validity dates and data sources.

How Routes Are Planned

Every route is calculated on the FlightPlanner route server. It plans the minimum-cost route for the aircraft — fuel, time and route charges — in the forecast winds, combining published airways with direct legs wherever the airspace allows them, and checks each leg against the regional rules below. Weather (SIGMETs) en route is planned around, and US prohibited, restricted and warning areas are avoided.

• Navdata — AIRAC cycle shown in the status bar (Navigraph X-Plane 12 data): 256,000+ waypoints, 82,000+ airway segments, procedures for 3,100+ airports.
• Winds — NOAA GFS 0.5° forecast, wind and temperature at 17 levels from near the ground to about FL530, taken at the time the aircraft reaches each point. A new forecast is loaded about 3½ hours after each 00/06/12/18Z run; the wind panel shows the cycle in use (e.g. GFS 10/00Z).
• Wind track — the engine first finds the fastest track through the winds, then builds the legal route along it. Long routes are also tried the other way round the globe and along the great circle; the cheapest result wins.
• Queue — while the server is busy the button shows your place in the queue and an estimate. A route asked for recently is answered instantly from the server's cache. If an engine restarts mid-route the request is sent again automatically; if it still can't answer you'll see “The route server did not answer” — just try again.

Regional Rules

• Oceans & remote areas — wind-optimal user-preferred routes (UPRs) with latitude/longitude waypoints. Where the FIR requires them, points sit on every 10° of longitude on east–west legs (20° beyond 70° latitude) and every 5° of latitude on north–south legs; elsewhere a point at least every 60 or 80 minutes, as that FIR's AIP asks. These are the points the engine actually flew.
• Landfall — from the last oceanic point the route goes direct to a fix or VOR at the coast (and, if needed, one short direct leg to join an airway), then airways to the arrival. The crossing point is chosen for the winds.
• North Atlantic — the day's NAT organised tracks (loaded hourly from the FAA) are offered for transatlantic flights and flown whole at their levels when they suit the wind.
• Pacific — no fixed PACOTS tracks; wind-optimal UPRs within the NOPAC corridor, Central East Pacific (Hawaii–California), Japanese Oceanic Transition Route and Oakland Oceanic boundary rules.
• Europe — Free Route Airspace above each region's floor, EUROCONTROL RAD (level caps, point and airway restrictions, published directs, SID/STAR rules, with restricted-area times from the day's airspace use plan) and the UK Standard Route Document for UK flights.
• Middle East — Saudi Arabia's published free-route routings above FL300.
• USA & Canada — direct legs at FL290 and above between named fixes and navaids (up to 450 NM in the US, 500 NM in Canada, with a point in each centre crossed), SIDs, STARs or airways within 200 NM of the airports, the routes US airlines file between the busiest airports, FAA preferred routes for listed city pairs and Canadian mandatory IFR routes.
• Australia & New Zealand — one plan mixing Australian UPRs and airways wherever the OARP allows them, with the gate routes at the major airports, the terminal exclusion zones and clearance from restricted areas; New Zealand UPRs in Auckland Oceanic, joining the domestic airways at published boundary fixes.
• Russia — free routing between named points in the St Petersburg and Tyumen free-route areas; latitude/longitude points only in Magadan Oceanic; airways elsewhere.
• Airways-only regions — China (on its designated routes), Japanese domestic airspace and most continental FIRs use published airways only.

Runways & Procedures

Runways are picked automatically from the surface wind at the time: the departure at the EOBT, the arrival at the estimated arrival time — from the current METAR, or from the TAF further ahead. Only runways within a 5 kt tailwind and 20 kt crosswind (gusts included) are used, the main runways first, then the most headwind. In calm wind the main runway best aligned with the route is used.

The engine chooses the SID and STAR (with their transitions) that give the best route for that runway. Published SIDs are preferred over radar-vector departures; jets at US and Canadian airports get RNAV SIDs.

Route Options

Long route plans the long way round the globe.

Max latitude keeps the route below a given latitude (north or south).

Route via North or South Pole plans the route through the polar area (north of 78°N or south of 60°S) under the same airspace, RAD and ETOPS rules as any route. If no legal route gets there, the plan says so.

Avoid countries routes around the selected countries' airspace with a 50 NM margin. Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Russia, Iraq and Yemen are avoided automatically (listed as Auto-avoided) — except for flights to or from that country, Russia for departures from China and Iraq for Gulf airports. Countries far from the route don't affect it.

Avoid FIRs avoids individual Flight Information Regions.

Route through makes the route pass through the selected countries.

Antarctica sightseeing plans a scenic round trip over Antarctica from YSSY, YMML, YBBN, YPPH, YPAD or YPDN (calculated in your browser).

Aircraft & Performance

Choose an aircraft to see the full Operational Flight Plan. Five detailed profiles are built in:

ATR 72-600	Turboprop, FL250, 275 kt
A320neo	Narrowbody, FL370, M0.78
737-800	Narrowbody, FL370, M0.785
777-300ER	Widebody, FL350, M0.84
A350-900	Widebody, FL370, M0.85

The A320neo and A350-900 have the most detailed fuel models (cruise, climb, maximum level from weight and temperature). With no aircraft selected the route is planned for an A320neo up to 2,800 NM and an A350-900 beyond. Types marked (OpenAP) show their own figures in the flight plan, but the route itself is planned with that default aircraft.

Cost Index (kg/min) trades fuel for time: 0 = least fuel, higher = faster. Blank (AUTO) uses the aircraft type's own cost index — its time cost against the fuel price — for the minimum-cost plan.

Cruise FL — Auto (default) lets the engine pick the initial level from aircraft weight, temperature and winds; or choose a fixed level. Step climbs are planned automatically and appear in the flight plan and route string.

RVSM certified (on by default) allows FL290–FL410; turning it off restricts levels to FL280 and below or FL420 and above.

ETOPS — a rating is suggested automatically for the city pair (from the distance to suitable diversion airports along the way) and the engine plans with it unless you change the setting. The route then stays within diversion range of an airport at all times; the ETOPS Analysis panel shows the coverage. Very remote routes (e.g. over Antarctica) may go a longer way round to keep that coverage — set ETOPS to None to plan without it.

The fuel plan includes trip fuel, 5% contingency, alternate and 30-minute final reserve fuel (2 hours for an isolated destination with no alternate), checked against tank capacity and weight limits; payload is reduced if a limit is reached. Routes far towards the poles are re-planned if the fuel would get too cold.

ETOPS critical fuel — on an ETOPS route the engine finds the equal-time points between the en-route alternates and checks three failures at each: a decompression (descent to 10,000 ft, all engines), a decompression with an engine failure, and an engine failure alone (one-engine level-off). Each diversion is flown through the forecast winds (+5%), with icing where the humidity forecast shows it, 5% for engine deterioration, 15 minutes holding at 1,500 ft, the approach and the APU. If the plan would not have that fuel on board at the critical point, the difference is added as additional fuel. The flight plan lists the entry and exit points, every ETP and the critical point.

Results

The info panel shows the route string (click to copy; with an aircraft it includes speed/level groups for step climbs), distance against the great circle, SID and STAR with their runways, timezone crossings, and either the waypoint list with winds or, with an aircraft, the Operational Flight Plan: weights, fuel plan, re-dispatch analysis on long routes and a full navigation log, plus the ETOPS critical fuel table on ETOPS routes.

Weather — METARs and TAFs for departure and arrival, and up to three scored alternate airports with their weather, distance and longest runway. A route that still crosses a SIGMET en route shows a warning.

NOTAMs — a briefing for the departure, destination and alternates, then en route by FIR. From the FAA NOTAM feed (US and international) and the complete UK, Canadian and US TFR sets; while the feed is new, older NOTAMs outside those sets may be missing, and the briefing says so.

Custom Route Mode

On the Custom tab, paste a route string and click Plot Route:

KJFK DCT MERIT A590 YOSHI DCT RJTT

Airports (ICAO or IATA), airways, named fixes, DCT, SID/STAR names and coordinates (55N020W, 5530N02000W) are understood. Custom routes are plotted as entered, without winds; speed/level groups are not supported.

Globe Controls

Left drag / one finger	Rotate the globe
Right drag	Tilt the view
Scroll wheel / pinch	Zoom in and out
Click waypoint	Highlight it and show its name
Right-click	Add a via-point (when a route is shown)
Drag via-point	Move it; the route updates on release
Click via-point, Delete	Remove it

Via-points reshape the route in your browser as direct legs through the points (with coordinate waypoints); airways, SID and STAR are not kept. Calculate again to return to a planned route.

Map Layers

Flight Planning Mode (on by default) shows a clean map: country names, capitals, states, oceans, airports and borders. Turn it off to choose layers yourself:

• Labels — countries, cities, states/provinces, oceans and seas, mountains and landmarks
• Features — airports, country and state borders, rivers, geographic overlays, day/night
• Aviation — FIR boundaries, airways, SIGMETs and NAT tracks (SIGMETs and NAT tracks also work in Flight Planning Mode). Routes are planned around SIGMET weather en route (not within 100 NM of the departure and arrival airports).

Export

Download the flight plan in 8 formats:

.PLN	Microsoft Flight Simulator
.FMS	X-Plane 11/12
.JSON	Structured route data
.KML	Google Earth
.FLTPLAN	Navigraph
.GPX	GPS / mapping apps
.PDF	Printable OFP (aircraft required)
.TXT	ICAO flight plan, Doc 4444 (aircraft required)

For flight simulation use only. Not for real-world navigation.

Got it