Agent69

Was sat in a lounge yesterday aimlessly looking at the departure board, when I saw a couple of flights that were going in vaguely the same direction at the same time, and this set me wondering. Say BA and QR have flights to DOH departing LHR at about the same time, do the fly the same route and altitude (so one follows the other all the way) or is there scope for the second flight to overtake the first if it is flying faster?

Krisz

Short answer yes sometimes they do overtake each other. Some planes fly faster than others some plane can flyer higher or lower. Airspace congestion plays a role here. Airline policy plays as well how fast or slow a plane should fly for optimal fuel burn. Many factors plays into this. Sometimes for example the two BA planes which goes to SIN and not far depart from each other can go in a completely different routing. It’s rare they would overtake each other in air though.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi

Not sure about middle east routes but there are lots of photos of aircaft overtaking each other ( they are at different assigned altiudes) often on Transatlantic westbound routes as it is in daylight) on the web

Regards

Tbs

atcer28

While there are routes in the sky a bit like a road, unlike roads they are much more flexible. I can't speak for how it works outside Europe but within congested airspace like the UK, airlines are constantly vectored 3-5 miles apart usually parallel to the route to allow aircraft at the same level but at different speeds. Also, the altitude that aircraft fly at is determined by the most efficient fuel burn based on things like type, winds and load. Obviously, ATC may not always be able to accommodate the requested level but we usually get them there eventually. It is mainly not route-specific except in terms of levels are all either eastbound or westbound to help with conflicting traffic. It works slightly differently over the ocean and some routes are level restricted for aircraft flying shorter distances to keep them out of a particular ATC sector to balance the traffic.

Plus as we all know the chances of both aircraft taking off at their scheduled time from Heathrow (especially BA) at Heathrow are slim to none!

HIDDY

Last week while I was sitting out at the quinta skiving from the wife I noticed several contrails high in the sky. Most were heading in the Buenos Aires direction all well separated. However the one going in the opposite direction caught my eye as it had four engines which I could clearly hear despite it being so high. Curiosity got the better of me so I looked up Flightradar on the mobile to see what it was. Turned out to be a Kalitta Air 747 cargo plane that had taken off from EZE heading for SCL.

DirektornSE

I'm not an aviation geek but isn't pretty much most parts of the world some kind of controlled airspace? Eurocontrol for example?

Are there really more flexibility on these "sky highways"? You would need quite higher margins in air as an airplane just cant do 180 degrees turns
Also, if I understand it correctly you cant deviate from your submitted flight path.

But I don't think "overtaking" is the right word in a 3d space.

sunshinebob

Flew once on a 777 to Barbados on BA , taking off after the VS 747 flight going to the same place but arriving moments before them.

So must have overtaken them on route , did not mind as it was a hot Immigration hall and we sailed in whilst they queued behind us in the sun.

fransknorge

Flew once with colleagues going to DFW, we were on different airlines, my flight was departing 30 minutes after their. Both flights took off on time, I waited 20 min for them in the arrival hall. Our flight flew a slightly southern route and shaved 50 min of the flight time compared to their.

martin102

Edinburgh had two BA flights yesterday departing at 11.30 arriving 13.00. One of them must have been slot filler. The one that departed at 11.29 arrived 13.00 and the one that departed at 11.31 arrived at 12.56.

There was somewhere an overtaking manoeuvre.

orbitmic

Planes fly at significantly different speeds so yes of course they do - you wouldn’t want a 359 to stay patiently behind an ATR just to respect some vague queuing system. And as mentioned by others planes will typically be assigned different heights or positions when it happens.

I remember when the 320 was first launched, a lot of MD80 pilots wanted to switch to it as it was a lot more agile. Conversely, the first 330s were deemed quite slow and I know at least one 747 pilot who didn’t want to switch as he felt the engines performance was far from great. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples.

ScienceTeacher

Just as I saw the day flight take off...

This mornings VS26 took off at 10:09 from JFK and is due into LHR at 20:09.
This mornings BA178 took off at 09:59 from JFK and is due into LHR at 20:13.

So whilst the BA took off ten minutes earlier, it'll be 4 minutes or so later.

I suspect it just comes down to different routings, air craft type (787 vs 777 here) and optimum speeds!

BA6501

And then, of course, you have geopolitical restrictions - e.g. flying around the Middle East. Look at SV643 and ME425, for example.

skipness1E

Instagram has a lot of interesting pilot photos of overtaking slower aircraft above and below on the same track. Typical speeds of Mach 0.80 to Mach 0.85 means it's common and manageable. So yeah, you can leave before and competitor and land afterwards, especially if they're in a quad and you're on a twinjet.

BrunswickSq

Flying Concorde to JFK, the Captain came on the intercom to announce that we were overtaking the flight that had left LHR half an hour before us. It was also 30,000 feet below us.

littlefish

I remember well, being on little BA1, running as fast as it could westbound from LCY-JFK; when all of a sudden I looked to the starboard side and big brother BA 747 zoomed past.
Happily I had my binoculars to watch the action west of Greenland and got a photo or two which I've salted away somewhere.
Of course, we arrived in AA domestic and were altogether getting a less rushed experience

Neither a Babybus or a BA 747 these says of course, lucky to have the memories.