Whats In a Route?

In the not-too-distant past, routes were so simple, werent they? It seemed like all you had to know was the difference between low-altitude Victor airways, and high-altitude Jet routes. These VOR-based routes shaded in black on enroute charts were joined by blue-shaded RNAV-based routes over a decade ago. Low altitude T-routes, high altitude Q-routes, and low altitude helicopter TK-routes have become quite common, and will likely eventually outnumber VOR-based routes. (Where an RNAV route is co-located with a VOR-based route, it is sometimes called a joint route.)

Editorial Staff

Monday, August 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Air routes have significantly diversified from traditional VOR-based Victor and Jet airways to include modern RNAV-based T-, Q-, and TK-routes, with some legacy NDB-based colored airways still present in specific U.S. regions.
International air travel involves additional route systems such as Bahama Routes, Puerto Rican local routes, and general Air Traffic Services (ATS) routes, often identified by phonetic characters and numbers.
The future of air navigation is moving towards new technologies, with ADS-B routes already in use internationally and being explored for domestic offshore applications.

See a mistake? Contact us.

What’s In a Route?

In the not-too-distant past, routes were so simple, weren’t they? It seemed like all you had to know was the difference between low-altitude Victor airways, and high-altitude Jet routes. These VOR-based routes shaded in black on enroute charts were joined by blue-shaded RNAV-based routes over a decade ago. Low altitude T-routes, high altitude Q-routes, and low altitude helicopter TK-routes have become quite common, and will likely eventually outnumber VOR-based routes. (Where an RNAV route is co-located with a VOR-based route, it is sometimes called a joint route.)