Tracking Aircraft Routes

[Blackthorn]

I tracked a Thomas Cook Airbus from East Midlands on route to Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Thanks to the users in Ireland I was able to follow it north over Liverpool, The Irish Sea, Dublin, Cork then due South, this seems a strange routing for the Canary Islands is this usual?

[RodBearden]

I think this sort of thing is quite common as it avoids en-route ATC charges over France, Spain, and Portugal. The green lobby has complained about it, and, of course, the airlines themselves would prefer direct routings, but if it's cheaper that way...

Rod

[Blackthorn]

Thanks for the information Rod.

[RodBearden]

I've just been looking at the Atlantic jetstream map, http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/jetstream.asp, and see that there's a strong southward component off the west coasts of Ireland and Portugal, and a northern component over France. That's possibly another factor in that routing.

Rod

[Blackthorn]

Interesting, so they would re-route to get a tailwind.