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Old Jul 25, 2019, 7:52 pm
  #1  
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Japanese airline route maps

ANA and JAL route maps show routes marked by zigzagging straight lines that merge then fork and are very difficult to follow and make almost no sense. It's been like that as long as I can remember. Air Do is the same. I wonder why they don't do just more straightforward point to point curve that you can follow, like all the US airlines.

Is there a logical reason behind drawing routes this way, and is there a particular way to properly follow the lines?
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Old Jul 25, 2019, 10:03 pm
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Are you familiar with the way point of RNAV identified by five alpha letters?
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Old Jul 25, 2019, 10:27 pm
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Originally Posted by AlwaysAisle
Are you familiar with the way point of RNAV identified by five alpha letters?
No but I just googled it.
So far what I’ve read is over my head. This is not for lay people!
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Old Jul 25, 2019, 10:39 pm
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Old Jul 27, 2019, 5:32 am
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What's complicated about it? RNAV beacons are just that, beacon points. Think of them as train stations, but stations that can be arranged any which way you want in terms of linking things together. The planes fly from point to point in order to keep things easy and safe to control. EOS for purposes here.
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Old Jul 27, 2019, 12:34 pm
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Is there an example we can see of what the OP is talking about?
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Old Jul 27, 2019, 6:34 pm
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Originally Posted by TA
Is there an example we can see of what the OP is talking about?
A). Where does JAL fly to from Bangkok? Where does it fly to from Hochi Min City? Routes to/from Bangkok and HMC merge into the same line. In reality, JAL flies from Bangkok to Osaka, NGO, TYO, but it only flies from HMC to TYO. How is one supposed to be able to figure that out?

B). JAL flies from London to TYO. Why are there 2 different lines coming out of London? It makes it seem like it's going to 2 different destinations, but it's not. You might think it's indicating different routes for westbound and eastbound, but then you only see one line coming out of Moscow.

C). This is Air Do's map. Doesn't make sense. From Obihiro, they only fly to HND and yet the map shows 2 lines coming out of Obihiro including one which makes it seem like it goes to Sendai. For Memanbetsu, they only fly there from HND. Incredibly tough to tell that the only flight out of Memanbetsu is a nonstop to HND by looking at this map.

exhibit A:


exhibit B:


exhibit C:
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Old Jul 27, 2019, 11:03 pm
  #8  
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Oh, interesting.

I was thinking of the Lufthansa style maps where, because FRA and MUC are so close, they have two "bunches" of route lines that start clustered together at their hubs, then diverge mid-Atlantic to "shower" North America for example, to clearly show that a city is served by the 2 origins.

This, however, I can only attribute as related to the Japanese higher tolerance for overly confusing schematic diagrams in the simplest of consumer transactions. Someone is definitely being kept very busy maintaining these maps!
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