Compare the best flight simulator airports and routes for beginners, turboprops and airliners, with Heathrow, KLAX and Casablanca advice.
For general flight simulation, the best airports and routes match the aircraft, available time and skill you want to practise. Start with Honolulu–Kahului for turboprops, San Francisco–Los Angeles for airliners, Bellingham–Friday Harbor for beginners, or Queenstown–Milford Sound for mountain VFR; always verify runway length, weather and simulator scenery first.
These recommendations apply broadly to Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane 12, FSX, Prepar3D and FlightGear. Airport detail, installed terrain and navigation data vary between platforms. DCS is limited to airfields on the installed map, while Turboprop Flight Simulator uses its own fictional map rather than the worldwide ICAO airport system.
Best flight simulator routes by aircraft and flying style
The best flight sim routes have a clear training purpose and enough workload to remain interesting without overwhelming the pilot.
| Route | Best aircraft | Why fly it | Main difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bellingham–Friday Harbor (KBLI–KFHR) | Piston trainer | Short beginner VFR flight using coastlines and islands as visual references | Similar-looking islands and finding the destination before descending |
| Honolulu–Kahului (PHNL–PHOG) | Light or regional turboprop | One of the best introductory turboprop routes, with island scenery and a manageable sector length | Trade winds, an overwater leg and selecting the correct arrival runway |
| Bergen–Sogndal (ENBR–ENSG) | Regional turboprop | Fjords, short cruise time and realistic regional operations | Terrain, low cloud and rapidly changing wind near the destination |
| Queenstown–Milford Sound (NZQN–NZMF) | Light piston, bush aircraft or suitable light turboprop | Exceptional mountain VFR through valleys and confined terrain | Few escape options in cloud and limited runway room at Milford Sound |
| San Francisco–Los Angeles (KSFO–KLAX) | A320 or 737-class airliner, or regional jet | A complete airline flight without a long cruise segment | Busy terminal procedures, runway changes and early descent planning |
| Heathrow–Amsterdam (EGLL–EHAM) | Narrow-body airliner | Complex ground operations and a compact European airline sector | The cruise is so short that arrival preparation must begin early |
| Innsbruck–Salzburg (LOWI–LOWS) | Piston aircraft or turboprop | Alpine handling, terrain awareness and either VFR or instrument practice | Restricted manoeuvring space and weather obscuring high ground |
| Casablanca–Marrakesh (GMMN–GMMX) | Turboprop, regional jet or narrow-body airliner | A short Moroccan domestic sector between two main airports | Heat, wind, visibility and preparing for descent soon after climb |
| Princess Juliana–Saint Barthélemy (TNCM–TFFJ) | Light piston or an appropriate light turboprop | Short visual navigation followed by a demanding approach | Rising ground, a short runway and little tolerance for an unstable approach |
For more route planning in Microsoft Flight Simulator, our collection of specific scenic flights with aircraft and difficulty guidance covers destinations including Hawaii, Norway, New Zealand and the Alps.
Which main airports are best for practising?
The most useful main airport is a well-equipped base with several runways, recognisable approaches and a quieter diversion within practical range.
- Seattle-Tacoma (KSEA): useful for airline operations, with Boeing Field, Renton and smaller regional airports nearby.
- Honolulu (PHNL): an excellent turboprop base because the Hawaiian islands provide routes of several lengths over easily recognised terrain.
- Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM): strong practice for runway selection, long taxi routes, holding points and reading an airport chart carefully.
- London Heathrow (EGLL): best for airliner procedures and ground discipline, but unnecessarily complicated for a first circuit or basic VFR lesson.
- Los Angeles (KLAX): suitable for parallel-runway operations, coastal arrivals and short-haul routes around the western United States.
- Casablanca Mohammed V (GMMN): the main airport to use when planning a present-day airline flight to Casablanca.
- Innsbruck (LOWI) and Queenstown (NZQN): good mountain bases once the pilot understands terrain clearance, go-around planning and weather limits.
A mistake we see constantly is choosing the largest possible hub for every lesson. A detailed hub is valuable for taxiing and airline procedures; a smaller regional airport is better for repeated circuits, visual navigation and learning a new aircraft without twenty minutes of ground movement.
What does HubPlus Heathrow mean in a flight simulator?
HubPlus Heathrow is not a standard airport identifier, navigation procedure or universal scenery format; the real ICAO code for London Heathrow is EGLL.
If HubPlus appears in an app, game or add-on description, treat it as that product’s own label. Confirm the supported simulator and version before installing or purchasing anything. To load Heathrow in a conventional flight simulator, search for London Heathrow or enter EGLL; entering HubPlus as an airport code will not work.
Which Casablanca airport should I select?
For a normal present-day passenger route to Casablanca, select Mohammed V International Airport using ICAO code GMMN.
Some scenery packages or older databases may also display Casablanca-Anfa. Do not substitute it automatically: confirm the route’s intended era, airport status and available runway data. Searching by city name alone can select the wrong field, especially when a metropolitan area contains historical, military or general-aviation airports.
What is the best Turboprop Flight Simulator map route?
In the mobile game Turboprop Flight Simulator, the safest first route is from Main Airport to another full-size paved airport shown on the installed map, using daylight, light winds and an aircraft with generous runway margin.
This game should not be confused with flying a turboprop in MSFS or X-Plane. Its map uses game-specific locations rather than real ICAO codes, and missions may prescribe the departure, destination, cargo or aircraft. Main Airport is the practical place to learn take-off, landing, taxiing and vehicle controls before attempting smaller strips.
What is the shortest runway in Turboprop Flight Simulator?
There is no dependable version-independent runway name or published real-world length for the shortest runway in Turboprop Flight Simulator; use the smallest secondary strip displayed in your installed map rather than Main Airport.
Map layouts and available locations can differ between game builds, and the map is not an aeronautical chart with declared take-off and landing distances. An answer based on another build may therefore identify a strip that has moved, changed or is not available in your game.
- Inspect every secondary airport on the map. Compare marked runway endpoints at the same map scale rather than judging from the airport icon.
- Use one aircraft for every test. Changing aircraft, payload or fuel makes the comparison meaningless.
- Begin light and in good weather. A heavy aeroplane or tailwind can make a usable runway appear impossible.
- Approach at the correct speed. Excess speed consumes runway much faster than a small reduction in aircraft weight saves it.
- Go around if the touchdown is long. Do not use an overrun as evidence that the runway itself is unusable.
For general turboprop flying outside that specific game, PHNL–PHOG is the best easy route in our list, while ENBR–ENSG adds terrain and weather. NZQN–NZMF should be reserved for pilots comfortable with mountain escape planning.
What is the best route in an airline simulator?
San Francisco–Los Angeles is the best all-round airline simulator route because it includes realistic departure, cruise, descent and arrival phases without leaving the aircraft at cruise altitude for hours.
Heathrow–Amsterdam is more demanding despite being shorter. Taxiing can take a significant part of the session, and the aircraft may reach its descent point before the crew has completed the arrival setup. Choose it when practising workload management rather than when learning a new airliner from scratch.
In an airline management game, there is no universal best route. Profit depends on that game’s passenger or cargo demand, aircraft capacity, utilisation rules, airport charges and operating-cost model. A famous hub pair is not automatically profitable, and the longest route is not automatically the best.
- Choose KSFO–KLAX for a balanced first narrow-body flight.
- Choose EGLL–EHAM for rapid procedure changes and complex ground operations.
- Choose GMMN–GMMX for a short North African sector suitable for regional aircraft.
- Choose PHNL–PHOG when moving from turboprops into regional jets.
How do you choose the right flight sim route?
Choose the aircraft and training objective first, then reject any route that lacks sufficient runway, weather margin or time for a properly prepared arrival.
- Define the purpose. Pick circuits for landing practice, a coastline route for visual navigation, mountains for terrain planning or a hub pair for airline procedures.
- Allow for the whole session. Taxi, climb, descent and approach can take longer than the cruise on a short airline route.
- Check usable runway data. Runway length, displaced thresholds, surface, slope, elevation and obstacles all matter. The longest-looking strip on the map may not offer the greatest landing distance.
- Match the aeroplane to the field. Use the aircraft’s performance information at the planned weight and add a sensible margin rather than treating a barely successful simulator landing as normal operation.
- Plan the arrival before departure. Review the runway, approach, missed approach and terrain while still on the ground.
- Select a genuine alternate. It must accept the same aircraft and remain usable if the destination’s weather or runway closes.
- Keep navigation data consistent. Different database cycles can produce missing procedures, changed runway numbers and route discontinuities.
If an airport is difficult to locate, use its four-letter ICAO identifier rather than its city or marketing name. Our guide to finding and loading a destination with ICAO codes, GPS and FMS systems covers the next steps.
Are flight simulator airports available worldwide?
Major general-purpose simulators offer worldwide coverage, but worldwide does not mean that every airport has equally detailed scenery or complete procedures.
The German search term weltweit means worldwide. Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane and FlightGear cover airports across the world, subject to installed or streamed scenery and their airport databases. FSX and Prepar3D also provide broad global coverage, although many fields use generic buildings. DCS covers only the airfields included on each installed regional map, while Turboprop Flight Simulator uses a fictional game map.
Runways and navigation facilities can be useful even where the terminal is generic. Visual quality should not be confused with operational accuracy: a beautifully modelled airport may still have outdated taxiway signs, while a plain-looking airport may have correct runway geometry and approaches.
How do I use KLAX in X-Plane 12?
Enter KLAX as the location in X-Plane 12, then select the required runway, ramp or gate rather than searching only for Los Angeles.
If the airport appears but the surrounding terrain is missing or incorrect, check that the relevant geographic scenery is installed. If buildings, taxiways or runways are duplicated, look for competing packages in Custom Scenery and inspect scenery_packs.ini. Custom airport scenery normally needs priority over the simulator’s global airport entry, while mesh belongs lower in the order.
An older X-Plane package is not automatically compatible with X-Plane 12. Missing libraries, unsupported plug-ins, floating objects and incorrect ground textures are common warning signs. Use scenery made or confirmed for the installed simulator version; our X-Plane aircraft and scenery library is organised separately from files for MSFS, FSX and Prepar3D.
Why is a recommended airport missing or inaccurate?
A recommended airport is usually missing or wrong because of absent regional scenery, conflicting add-ons, generic default scenery or mismatched navigation databases.
- No airport in the search results: verify the ICAO code and check whether the simulator covers that part of the world or requires regional scenery to be installed.
- Missing approach: the procedure may have been renamed, assigned to a renumbered runway or omitted from the aircraft’s navigation database.
- FMS route discontinuity: inspect it before deleting it. Some discontinuities represent expected radar vectors or a manual leg rather than corrupt route data.
- Duplicate runways or buildings: disable the older package for that airport and allow the simulator to rebuild or refresh its scenery index where required.
- Airport surrounded by water or flat terrain: the airport data may be present while the corresponding regional terrain is not installed.
- Historical airport in a modern simulator: closed locations such as Hong Kong Kai Tak generally need era-specific scenery and will not align cleanly with present-day navigation data.
- Wrong simulator package: MSFS, X-Plane, FSX, Prepar3D and FlightGear scenery formats are not interchangeable.
When improving a route with files from our freeware aircraft and scenery library, install one airport package at a time and test it before adding another package for the same location. That makes conflicts much easier to identify and reverse.