The route data is encoded in the routes.dat file within the application zip file. Or if you'd like it predigested with unique IDs (as opposed to often duplicated IATA codes) for airlines and airports, download it from OpenFlights:

http://openflights.org/data.html

Thanks, jpatokal. I'm familiar with the format - I've manually added new "alliances" (for example all the low cost carriers in Asia) & routes which I knew were missing (for example BKK-JNB on TG) to assist with upcoming travel plans.

It looks like the Openflights routes.dat is a different/incompatible format (comma delimited) from the original ARM format (tab delimited). I would be willing to write a script to convert OF to ARM if OF's are updated more frequently (and I would donate to the OF cause, naturally )

I do already have an OF account, and I find it useful for recording past trips, but nothing I've seen beats ARM for complex route planning.

On a side note: what are you using to generate those gorgeous world maps with airport locations & routes? GCM is great, but the images are to small - I'd love to be able to generate a large custom route map like what you've done.

Wow! I really like this. I love the world maps. Why wasn't I here long ago?

It's the other way around: OF data is generated from ARM, and it's formatted that way for easy database importing.

Um, are you asking me or cockpitvisit? OpenFlights uses OpenLayers for mapping, with a whole bunch of custom Javascript code on top to render the routes and airports. My favorite hack, though, is exporting the flight data as KML and rendering it as 3D in Google Earth:




http://openflights.org/blog/2009/02/...-google-earth/

I'm speaking to you.

I know how to use KML/gEarth to do what I want, but I really like what you did with these: openflights-apdb-2048.png & openflights-routedb-2048.png. How did you gen them? I'd really like to recreate a map similar to the second one with only the routes I specify.

Start here:
http://openflights.svn.sourceforge.n...hp?view=markup

Customize the SQL to filter out what you want, eg. "WHERE r.alid=[numeric airline ID]" should do the trick if you want a single-airline map. The underlying map must be equirectangular (plate carree) projected, the default NASA Blue Marble map is in the same directory as map-2048.png.

Good stuff, jpatokal! Thanks for sharing. My schedule's a little crazy in the short term, but I'm looking forward to tinkering with this.

A new update is now available.

• Route maps updated to reflect March 2010.

Thanks, cockpitvisit! Any thoughts on my recommendation from post #240?

No.

thanks for the tip

I'm noticing more and more airport coordinates which are thousands of kilometres from their real locations. Would it be possible to post the airport coordinates list on a wiki so that users can edit incorrect data?

Yes, I am thinking about a Wiki too (also for airlines).

Do you know of any aviation-themed wiki where this can be hosted, or should I do it myself?

Also, if you have any incorrectly placed airports (apart from the list you posted a while ago), you can post them here, so that I could get them into the April update.

Thanks!

We have one right here (well, actually I guess it is still owned by Randy Petersen and not Internet Brands, but it's affiliated with FT): http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

A non-exhaustive list:

BPM 17.4531 78.4676 Hyderabad
HZH 26.3350 109.1500 Liping City
LDS 47.7149 128.8143 Yichun Shi (can't find exact coordinates, but is within a few km)
NBS 42.0880 127.5489 Chang Bai Shan (name of airport is Chang Bai Shan)
NVI 40.1150 65.1592 Navoi
PZI 26.5423 101.7985 Pan Zhi Hua
ZNA 49.1833 -123.9500 Nanaimo Harbour

I'm sure there are plenty more incorrect points in places I've never heard of...