Flight Routes

According to the song by Reinhard Mey, there must be endless freedom over the clouds, but unfortunately this is not actually the case, particularly over the Rhine-Main region. The sky is full and, just as the cars on the road, the airlines also have to travel on specified routes. But because air traffic is constantly becoming denser, these routes have to be constantly reorganised and redetermined. The fact that this leads to collisions of various interests is unavoidable.

Who controls air traffic?
Since 1 January 1993 Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) is responsible for the control of air traffic in Germany. It directs air traffic, accepts the flight schedules, processes them and passes them on. It is also responsible for keeping all of the necessary technical facilities and wireless navigation systems in operation. 

How are the arrival and departure routes planned?
Particularly when aircraft are taking off, there is a lot of noise. Due to this high noise development, departure routes have to be especially carefully planned. The exact route is established in accordance with legal stipulations and coordinated with the local air traffic noise commission. Different flight procedures are established for each runway.   They start at the end of the runway and in the past would continue as far as possible in the direction of the destination airport. Today, the lowest possible noise burden on the population plays a co-determining role, which can mean that diversions have to be flown. 

Accordingly, the aircraft integrates itself into the so-called airways system. On arrival, starting from a certain position and flight altitude, the pilots are instructed by the air traffic controllers and directed by the signals of the instrument landing system (ILS). The air traffic act (LuftVO) allows the controllers to regulate the course of the flight, in particular the flight path and the flight altitude. The aircraft have to be queued according to specified criteria. Minimum distances have to be maintained horizontally and vertically. In addition to this, the responsible air traffic controller has to coordinate flight manoeuvres with his colleagues in the adjacent sectors to ensure safety. As this work could hardly be managed by a single controller, they work in teams. This means that two work together to control one sector in the airspace.

What happens if the specified routes are not maintained? For safety reasons the routes always have to be maintained up to a certain altitude. This is why the DFS air traffic controllers never grant an exception. This can only happen in emergencies. Small deviations to a certain extent are unavoidable. For these, however, there is a maximum permissible tolerance which is established by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). If the controllers ascertain that an aircraft is breaking the rules, this is reported to the air traffic noise protection officer, who is responsible for examining any contraventions and the complaints of citizens about air traffic noise. If a pilot is proven to have infringed upon the rules, regulatory offence procedures are initiated against him or the respective airline company.

Basis for the decision: the Air Traffic Code (LuftVO)
Which route the pilot has to take is decided by the Federal Air Traffic Authority (LBA) in consultation with air traffic controlling. According to Section 27 of the air traffic code, the authority establishes which course the aircraft must take, but not before hearing the air traffic noise commission, the air traffic noise officer and the regional aviation authority. Click here to see the data and maps for flight routes.

What is the difference between the flight route and the flight path?
The flight route specifies theoretically how an aircraft is to arrive or depart. To what extent this specification is maintained in practice is represented by the actual flight path of the aircraft. This factually flown route is monitored with the flight path recording system. It is the responsibility of Deutsche Flugsicherung to record the paths of all arriving and departing aircraft. 

What methods are used to record flight paths?

The flight path recording system is called 'FANOMOS'. This stands for Flight Track and Aircraft Noise Monitoring System. With this system the routes flown can be tracked and evaluated. This means that – along with other documents – it is an important aid in the case of air traffic noise complaints and regulatory offence proceedings initiated if the prescribed routes are not maintained.