Commercial aircraft operators are in the business of flying passengers from Point A to Point B, yet they seldom actually do just that. Aircraft almost always fly through several intermediate points because, until recently, traditional air navigation has relied heavily on the concept of airways featuring successively positioned ground-based navigational aids. In Europe, direct routes in free route airspace (FRA) are gaining momentum with more and more FRA being opened up.
FRA “is a specified airspace within which users can freely plan a route between a defined entry point and a defined exit point, with the possibility of routing via intermediate (published or unpublished) waypoints, without reference to the air traffic services route network and subject to airspace availability,” according to Eurocontrol. Within FRA, flights remain subject to air traffic control (ATC).
