[rvnupe]

Recently, I flew back from Miami to DFW on a Boeing 777. Initially the flight tracker showed our path leaving MIA and pretty much flying direct over the gulf to DFW. However, our actual flight path followed the coast of Florida all the way around the state. I really didn't understand that. Seem to make good sense just to fly over the Gulf as that seemed the shortest path. Is this the norm? Just curious.

 

[aviationgeek84]

My wife's brother went to Orlando from DFW last year and they flew on the coast as well - not over the Gulf.

Not sure why, but there you have it.

 

[Christopher Murphy]

gulf

Military Airspace.... F-22 shooting missles at QF-4E.
b-777 should be equipped for overwater but some "domestic" planes are not and are limited to 50miles off shore.

 

[jdmunzell]

A number of reasons it could be

There are a number of possible reasons for a route like this. Without knowing exactly what the wx conditions were that day, here are some possibilities...

1. If there were a bunch of thunderstorms out over the Gulf, that could've necessitated a diversion around the north..

2. It could've been to avoid strong headwinds. Sometimes flights are routed what appears to be pretty far out of the way in order to stay out of the jetstream headwinds. In a case like that, the direct route could take a lot longer if you pushing into strong 100kt+ headwinds...again just a possiblity here.

3. The more likely culprit could have to do with Air Traffic Control routing into DFW. That's a pretty busy airport and there are many different arrival gates into`the area. Many times controllers will want aircraft over certain fixes or navaids so they can get all their "ducks lined up" going in over a certain fix. If there are too many aircraft slated to arrive over that fix, they will assign alternate routing into the busy airport from over a different fix or even a different quadrant into the airport. The alternative to that would be holding until space is available to accomodate you. It's easier for everybody to go over a different fix and get on in there. BTW, this applies to most if not all the busy airports in the country, including Orlando.

4. Another factor tied to ATC could be just plain old conjestion on the high altitude airways. Florida is a pretty busy market down there with all the airports in South and Central Florida, and there can definitely be conjestion. So, alternative routes can be and are assigned to planes just to get everybody out of town...

5. One more possibility could have to do with the airplane itself. If the aircraft is not overwater equipped (life vests, life rafts, emergency equipment, proper navigation tools or systems for navigating beyond a standard VOR range), then it must stay fairly close to the coast. I don't know about the aircraft going to Orlando, but the first aircraft in question was a B-777 going into DFW. Unless there was a maintenance issue of some kind, I'm sure that airplane was overwater equipped.

I'm sure there are probably other reasons as well, but I hope this helps..