Frequently Asked Questions on ch-aviation - Routes

ch-aviation offers you a very user friendly interface targeted at consumers, professionals and enthusiasts alike to search and analyse airline routes. We have answered the most frequently asked questions below and hope this will address any immediate questions you may have on our routes section of the site:

 

How do I use the routes search form?

You have to provide at least one search criteria as an input to be able to search but can combine any of the search criteria as you would like. If you are looking for all routes from the Europe to Africa operated by oneworld carriers, select Europe as the Origin, Africa as the Destination and oneworld as the alliance. Then click on the search button.

 

How up to date is the ch-aviation routes information?

ch-aviation has partnered with OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited, one of the leading airline schedule data providers to be able to offer this service for you. We receive weekly schedule updates for the vast majority of all scheduled passenger airlines and also some charter and cargo carriers. While ch-aviation is undertaking a large amount of effort to correct and improve the data quality received from airlines by applying a wide range of data integrity checks, we still rely on what is initially filed and provided by the airlines and cannot guarantee that the routes information is 100% accurate at any given time.

 

Does ch-aviation allow me to search for connection flights?

We do not currently automatically build connections for you, you can search the database for any non-stop and direct services (direct meaning flights with multiple stops).

 

Which origin and destination search criteria can I use?

You can either search by specific airport, metro group, state, country or continent:

  • To search by airport, either type in the IATA (three letter) code, i.e. LHR for London’s Heathrow airport, the ICAO (four letter code), i.e. LSZH for Zurich or just start typing the airport name into the search fields. We will automatically populate a list of options for you to choose from a dropdown list as you enter the city or airport name.
  • Alternatively start by selecting a continent from the origin or destination dropdown list first. You may then choose to drilldown further and to either select a country, state (i.e. Alabama for the United States of America) or a metro group (i.e. London for all airports in the British capital and not just Heathrow).
  • Combinations are possibly, you may want to search for all routes from Ouagadougou to Europe for example.

 

What is a metro group?

A metro group includes multiple airports in the same city or close to the same city. If you are flying to New York, it might be reasonable for you to consider a flight into “JFK” (New York John F. Kennedy International) but to fly back from EWR (Newark Liberty International) because of flight times, your plans for the visit, air fare or similar. Both airports serve the city of New York and along with La Guardia airport even closer to the city centre are therefore in the metro group for New York City (metro group code NYC). By the way, we have made it easier for you to find alternative airports for a trip as well. Just click on any airport throughout the site and we will show you airports close by that might be of interest.

 

What filters can I apply for my search?

You may either filter by airline, alliance, aircraft type or service type:

  • Either type in the airline’s name or IATA two letter carrier code (i.e. SQ for Singapore Airlines).  As you start typing in an airline name, we will recommend possible options for you in a dropdown list that will dynamically be made available.
  • You can select one of the big three airline alliances (oneworld, Skyteam or Star Alliance) from the Alliance dropdown list.
  • The Aircraft Type filter allows you to filter by a specific aircraft type, i.e. A380-800.
  • Using the Service Type filter you can look at specific types of flights (see below).

 

What does codeshare and wet-lease stand for and how can I use the settings to include these?

Codesharing is a fairly common practice in the airline industry and as the word already suggests means that a flight operated by an operating carrier (that physically operates the flight) also carries one or multiple codes by other marketing carriers (that are only selling the flight operated by another carrier). The operating carrier operates the aircraft and offers its own product and gets the benefit that it is easier to sell its product through not just its own distribution channels but also through the marketing carrier. The marketing carrier can offer more destinations, connections or services on the same city pair thanks to placing its code on services operated by the partner. Maybe a controversial statement but think of it as Coca-Cola selling Coke and “Coke” (provided by Pepsi in Pepsi bottles and with Pepsi in the bottles). For example, United Airlines has a bilateral codeshare agreement with All Nippon Airways allowing the two Star Alliance carriers to offer more flights under their own code between the United States and Japan and more importantly a wide range of connections beyond their gateways on both sides of the Pacific.

 

Wet Lease describes the concept where an airline leases not just an aircraft from a leasing company (that would be considered a Dry-Lease) but where Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI Lease is another term for Wet Lease) are provided by another airline. So to get back to the Coca-Cola example, a case where Coke (or a product similar to Coke) is provided by a subcontractor in different bottles that may or may not be Coke branded. Airlines use wet-leases for a variety of reasons, for example to make use of the better cost structure of regional carriers or to provide additional permanent or seasonal capacity, to operate an aircraft type that the airline itself does not wish to operate itself etc. United Airlines uses the services of regional carrier SkyWest Airlines for example, that operates hundreds of Bombardier regional jets on its behalf under the United Express brand and UA flight numbers.

 

By default, if you search for routes, we will include all routes operated by the airline itself or on its behalf by other carriers on a wet-lease basis in the search results. So if you search for United Airlines, we show you United Airlines routes operated by United with its own aircraft as well as any other United Airlines routes operated on a wet-lease basis (i.e. the United Express routes operated by SkyWest).

 

If you would like to include codeshares as well (i.e. domestic routes in Japan operated by ANA where United is just a marketing carrier and placed its UA code on these), then check the “Include codeshares” box.

 

If you would like to see all routes operated by SkyWest Airlines on behalf of other carriers, then search for airline code “OO” or “SkyWest Airlines” and check the “Include wet-leases” checkbox. This will return all SkyWest Airlines routes, no matter if they are served on behalf of Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines or US Airways, all of which are SkyWest customers.

 

How can I group search results?

ch-aviation shows route information sorted by origin, then destination, then airline in alphabetical order by default. Alternatively you may use the “Group result by airline” option, then the routes display result will be sorted by airline first and then by origin and destination combination in alphabetical order.

 

What do opb and operating carrier stand for in the Remarks column?

The abbreviation opb stands for “operated by”. We use it to indicate that the route is operated by another airline on a wet-lease basis or similar (see above for additional information on wet-leases). The operating carrier is the airline operating the aircraft on a codeshare flight (see above for more details on codeshares).

 

On the Route Details page, more information is available. The wet-lease operator shows in the “Carrier” column and the carrier on which behalf the route is served shows in the “on behalf of” column. Codeshares shows which marketing carriers (see above for more details on codeshares) place their codes on which operating carrier services on the route selected.

 

I am working for an airline and our route network is not displayed on ch-aviation or is out of date, how can we provide you with our data?

ch-aviation has partnered with OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited, one of the leading airline schedule data providers to be able to offer this service to our customers. Please contact us at feedback@ch-aviation.ch and we can assist you in providing us with as regular as possible schedule updates and can process schedules in a variety of formats (SSIM7 files, SSM/ASM messages, Excel templates etc.) in cooperation with OAG.