Find real-world routes and real flight plans for Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, FSX and Prepar3D, plus fixes for navdata errors.
To find real-world routes for a flight simulator, choose a dated airline service from a timetable or airport board, verify its operator and aircraft, then obtain the filed IFR route or reconstruct one with current charts and a planner. Match the result to your simulator’s navigation database before loading it.
This answer covers General flight simulation, including Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, Prepar3D and FSX. The essential distinction is between a scheduled service, its filed route and the path it actually flew; these are related, but rarely identical.
Where can I find real flight plans and real-world routes?
The best starting point is a date-specific airline timetable or airport departure board, followed by a flight-tracking record and a route planner.
| Source | What it establishes | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Airline timetable | City pair, flight number, operating days and planned aircraft | The aircraft and schedule can change, and a codeshare may name the marketing airline rather than the operator |
| Airport departure or arrival board | A flight that operated or was scheduled on a particular date | Boards normally cover a limited period and seldom show the complete IFR route |
| Flight-tracking record | Actual aircraft, times, altitude profile and flown track | Radar vectors, shortcuts and weather deviations do not necessarily belong in the FMS route |
| Filed or operational flight plan | The requested route and, in a full dispatch document, fuel and alternate information | Complete airline operational flight plans are not consistently public |
| Charts and route planner | A valid reconstruction using available procedures, fixes and airways | A generated route is plausible, not proof that an airline filed it |
| Historical timetable or movement record | Retired aircraft, former airlines and discontinued services | Airport codes, airways, runways and navigation fixes may have changed |
Search by flight number, airport pair and a specific date. Flight numbers are reused, seasonal schedules change, and one number can cover several sectors. For ready-made files, our guide to finding compatible free flight plans and generating your own explains what can be loaded into the major simulators.
What airlines can I recreate?
You can recreate almost any scheduled airline for which the route, date and operating details are publicly identifiable.
Check the operating carrier, not just the name that sold the ticket. Codeshares, regional affiliates and wet leases can produce a different callsign, livery and aircraft from the marketing airline. Timetables also show planned equipment rather than a guaranteed tail number.
No source covers all operators or all flights. Cargo charters, positioning sectors, government movements and private flights may appear on an airport record without a public flight plan. In those cases, preserve the known airports, time and aircraft, then build a plausible route rather than presenting a reconstruction as the original filing.
Give me a flight: what is a good route to choose?
For an immediate choice, select a real airport pair that matches the time and aircraft complexity you want, then use a date-specific departure board to identify an actual service.
- Short airline sector: London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schiphol, using
EGLLtoEHAM. - Medium domestic sector: Seattle-Tacoma to San Francisco, using
KSEAtoKSFO. - Long-haul sector: London Heathrow to New York JFK, using
EGLLtoKJFK.
These are useful airport-pair suggestions, not claims about a particular flight number or departure date. Verify the service before assigning an airline and aircraft. Long-haul routes require extra care because oceanic tracks, entry points and winds can change; our worked transatlantic planning method covers that case.
How do I turn a real flight into a simulator flight plan?
Build the simulator plan by preserving fixed facts and recalculating details that depend on weather, runways, ATC and installed navigation data.
- Choose one dated flight. Record the departure and destination, local departure time, operating airline, flight number and aircraft. Watch for overnight flights whose arrival falls on the next local date.
- Convert the identifiers. Passenger information commonly uses three-letter IATA airport codes, while planners and avionics generally use four-letter ICAO codes. The commercial flight number can also differ from the operator’s ATC callsign.
- Decide the required accuracy. For routine airline simulation, matching the service, time and aircraft family is usually enough. Reproducing a particular filed route requires information from that specific date.
- Capture the en-route string. Copy named fixes and airways carefully. Do not enter
DCTas a waypoint; it means fly directly to the next named fix. - Rebuild missing sections. If only the airports or flown track are available, generate a route that is valid in your installed navdata. Our comparison of built-in planners and specialist flight-planning tools explains which approach suits simple exports, detailed airline planning and manual route construction.
- Select day-of-operation procedures. Choose the runway, SID, STAR, transition and approach for your simulated wind and airport flow. A route copied from another day may use the wrong runway or a procedure that has since been renamed.
- Check altitude, fuel and alternate. The route must suit the aircraft’s range and performance, not merely connect two airports. Use the expected winds and hazards when choosing a cruise level and alternate; our guide to turning weather charts into practical route decisions covers this step.
- Load and compare the result. Inspect the route in the cockpit avionics before departure. Confirm that no waypoint moved unexpectedly, every airway connects, and the approach terminates at the intended runway.
A mistake we see constantly is importing a route and assuming the aircraft’s FMS received an identical plan. The simulator planner and an add-on aircraft can use different navigation databases, so the cockpit route must be checked leg by leg.
Which is better: the filed route or the route flown in real life?
The filed route is usually the better basis for simulation because a flown track contains temporary ATC instructions that may not apply to your flight.
| Recreation style | What to copy | When to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule-authentic | Airports, date, approximate time, airline and aircraft family | Best default when the original flight plan is unavailable |
| Filed-route authentic | The route submitted or cleared for a particular flight | Best when you have a reliable route record and compatible navdata |
| Track recreation | The observed path, altitude and timing | Useful for studying what happened, including diversions, holds or weather avoidance |
If you arrived asking ¿cuál es mejor?, or looking for a route used nella vita reale—in real life—the answer is the same: use the schedule to identify the flight, the filed route to program it, and the track as evidence of what occurred that day. Do not programme every radar vector or shortcut as though it were a published waypoint.
Why does a real-world route not work in my simulator?
A copied route usually fails because the source and simulator use different navigation data, procedure names or runway assumptions.
- Waypoint or airway not found: The fix may be newer than the simulator database, renamed or withdrawn. Replace that section with fixes present in the aircraft’s active database.
- Airway will not accept the next fix: The fixes may not share the same airway segment, or the airway may have direction or altitude restrictions. Rebuild the affected section rather than forcing it.
- SID or STAR does not connect: Choose the transition that joins the first or last en-route fix. If ATC would provide vectors, the chart or avionics may intentionally show a vector leg.
- Route discontinuity: Check the chart before clearing it. Some discontinuities require a direct connection; others represent an expected heading or radar vector.
- Planner and aircraft disagree: Treat the aircraft’s active database as authoritative for what its FMS can accept, even if the outside planner draws the route correctly.
- Wrong approach or runway: Retain the en-route section but choose procedures appropriate to your simulated weather and airport flow.
- Imported plan changes shape: File formats do not preserve every constraint, procedure or custom waypoint equally. Compare the imported route against the source instead of trusting the magenta line.
FSX is particularly likely to reject modern procedures when using its original navigation data. If an exact historical or modern route cannot be represented, preserve the real service and broad routing, then substitute segments the installed avionics can fly safely.
Does this work in Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox?
Yes, real-world routes can be recreated in Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox, but console users usually have fewer file-import and external-planner options than PC users.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 runs natively on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 runs on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro; Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was never released for PlayStation.
Neither title has a native Xbox One version. For anyone searching for an Xbox One flight simulator, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 has been offered through Xbox Cloud Gaming on supported Xbox One consoles, subject to subscription, regional and catalogue availability. When using a console or cloud session, the dependable method is to enter the route through the simulator’s built-in planning interface or the aircraft avionics rather than relying on direct access to downloaded plan files.