10 questions for a Finnair flight planner: how your long-haul flight is planned

1. How would you describe your job as a flight planner to someone who has no idea what it involves?

My job is to put together the safest, most punctual and most cost-efficient route for every flight before passengers step on board. In practice, that means weighing weather, airspace restrictions, aircraft performance, fuel requirements and traffic flows against each other. The work is a mix of problem solving, real-time decision making and close teamwork.

2. What does a typical shift actually look like? Where do you start, and how does the day unfold?

No two shifts are alike, and how the day will unfold is hard, sometimes impossible, to predict. Some things still stay the same every time. I always start the same way: I get a clear picture of the current situation, go through the weather forecasts, and look at the day’s expected traffic flow. The better I understand where things are now and what is coming next, the better I can prepare for whatever the day brings. After that, the rest of the shift is about focusing on the task in front of me and reacting to what happens.

3. What part of the work takes the most time or demands the most precision?

Weather takes the most time and demands the most precision. It is part of every phase of the flight, from takeoff to landing. At the departure airport, we look at wind direction and runway conditions. En route, the challenges may be heavy turbulence, tropical cyclones or hurricanes near the route, or volcanic ash reaching cruising altitudes. At the destination, we are back to the same questions as at departure: what are the conditions there, and which runway will the aircraft land on.

4. How does the jet stream influence your route planning?

Jet streams are a big part of how a route is chosen. We try to take advantage of the tailwinds they offer and avoid the headwinds they produce. When a tailwind is on our side, the shortest route on the map and the most cost-efficient route are not always the same: the path can be considerably longer in distance, and yet both flight time and fuel needed are lower.

Flying close to a jet stream can also mean turbulence. If heavy turbulence is forecast near the stream, we plan the route well to the side of it.

5. Do you have an example of a situation where weather significantly changed the plan?

Volcanic ash has been the deciding factor more than a few times. In those cases, I have had to build a route that differed considerably from what I originally planned, and from what we would normally use. Ash areas can be very large, and the movement of an ash cloud is hard to forecast precisely. Cases where the route has to be altered close to departure are challenging, but you take something from each one, experience and judgement that helps the next time.

6. How has your work changed over the past few years as large areas of airspace have closed?

The fundamentals of flight planning have not changed. The same rules and regulations still apply. What has changed is the workload. Since the large airspace closures, flight planning takes more time: routes are longer, situations change more rapidly, and changes come at shorter notice.

A longer route also means more fuel, and that means a heavier aircraft. Every aircraft has maximum certified weights set by the manufacturer, such as maximum takeoff weight and maximum landing weight. On long-haul flights, especially with full passenger and cargo loads, we often operate very close to those limits. Weight management has become one of the most central parts of the work, because we cannot accept a single kilogram more than the aircraft is certified for.

Aircraft weight also affects how the aircraft performs once it is in the air. A heavier aircraft cannot fly as high as a lighter one, which becomes especially relevant in areas with high terrain.

We also always plan for contingencies, for example a flight that has to continue on a single engine. Even then, the aircraft must keep the required safety margins from terrain and obstacles, and at too high a weight that may not be possible. So we make sure the aircraft stays within safe weight limits at every phase of the flight, from takeoff to landing.

7. What does continuous monitoring actually mean in practice? What sources does the team use to stay current?

In the Operations Control Center, the picture of what is going on is built from many sources at once. We use official aviation information alongside open news sources. The official ones include NOTAMs (Notice To Airmen), AIPs (Aeronautical Information Publication) and various weather products such as TAFs (Terminal Area Forecast) and Volcanic Ash Advisories (VAA). Live news coverage keeps us up to date on what is happening in the world, and helps us spot anything that might affect flights.

8. How often do pilots actually call during a flight, and what kinds of situations prompt it?

Calls during a flight are not that frequent. Most of the communication between flight planning and the cockpit happens through messages via the aircraft's data link. Pilots typically reach out when the route has to be changed unexpectedly, for example because of weather or an instruction from air traffic control. In those cases, they need updated fuel calculations for the rest of the flight. The other typical reason is a diversion to a different destination than originally planned. The cause can be something like a medical situation on board, or a large area of airspace being closed ahead of us on the route. In those cases, the pilots need new route options quickly.

9. What is the best part of this job? What keeps you genuinely interested day after day?

The best part of this job is the combination of responsibility and variety, and the people you get to do the work. The demanding nature of the work and the environment keep me alert and push me to keep learning. There is always more to know, and no day is quite the same as the one before. Every time I step into the Operations Control Center, the people around me are motivated and committed to what they do.

10. Is there something passengers rarely understand about what goes into planning their flight?

There is a lot of work and planning behind every flight, more than passengers really need to think about. Some of the process is automated, but much of it still relies on people making decisions. Planning a long-haul route typically starts 5 to 8 hours before departure, and in more complex situations the route alone can take several hours to put together. By the time a passenger sits down in their seat, a long day’s work has already gone into the plan.