Hi all, In an established company like Ryanair or Easyjet, how is a route decided, and waypoints allocated for a flight? What's the most realistic way of planning a flight at the moment in flight sim? I currently use vroute but its options are a little limited. I would like to have proper flight plans with SIDS and STARs like a proper pilot. Any help appreciated.

Whenever I Fly Online, I Get My Flight Plans From http://www.flightaware.com Some Flight Plans You Can Decode and Some You Can't.

Take a look here: http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/I'll use this to plan the route then transfer the waypoints to PlanG ( http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/forum ) to convert to and save in FSX. It's a little involved but, I like the process.

Super! Thank you superglide, I have seen the rfinder website somewhere before :). For example I have used a EGGP - LEBL flight plan and it says EGGP (Liverpool) -> SID -> WAL. Do I just choose the appropriate SID for my departure runway?

the Rfinder one is good, but I did a plan from SYD-DFW and it took me up through ASIA and canada, so a 16 hour flight turned into a fuelstop in Canada, so be very careful when using it.

Yes, for your SIDs and STARs chose the right one for your departure and arrival runways. Also, consider the general directions of your flight. If you're departing to the east, you probably don't want a SID that is taking you west bound. Same for your arrivals. You can go to a site such as AirNav, http://www.airnav.com/airports/, which will not only give you all your airport information for runways, approaches, etc but, will also give you the METAR and TAF. You can also check the weather at NOAA's Aviation Weather Center http://aviationweather.gov/ . That will give you an idea of which runways will be in use. Then you can have a tentative plan for your arrival and approach. When you get near your Transition, if things have changed, you can then finalize your approach and IAF.There are many tools available for flight planning. FP can be a very enjoyable part of your simming experience.

In an established company like Ryanair or Easyjet, how is a route decided, and waypoints allocated for a flight?

Airlines have 'canned' routes because for the most part they are the same between any two airports. Modifications are made for weather and winds aloft if needed, as well as the direction of flight.

Yes, for your SIDs and STARs chose the right one for your departure and arrival runways. Also, consider the general directions of your flight. If you're departing to the east, you probably don't want a SID that is taking you west bound. Same for your arrivals. You can go to a site such as AirNav, http://www.airnav.com/airports/, which will not only give you all your airport information for runways, approaches, etc but, will also give you the METAR and TAF. You can also check the weather at NOAA's Aviation Weather Center http://aviationweather.gov/ . That will give you an idea of which runways will be in use. Then you can have a tentative plan for your arrival and approach. When you get near your Transition, if things have changed, you can then finalize your approach and IAF.There are many tools available for flight planning. FP can be a very enjoyable part of your simming experience.

Thanks for the links, I have always wanted to do more of the flight planning side of things and this is a good start.