Expected Route Information - what does it mean?

FlightAware General
1

I apologize if this is a trivial or naive question, but I’m new to FlightAware and I’m not a pilot (but I was referred to FlightAware by a commercial pilot).

I have enabled alerts to see how FlightAware works, and I have recently received the following:

"Air Canada #898 (B763) has just filed a flight plan. It is scheduled to depart from Edmonton Int’l (CYEG) at 07:30PM MDT heading for London Heathrow (EGLL/LHR) for an estimated arrival at 10:30AM BST.

Expected route: J517 J517 YMM 10000W 09000W 08000W 06000W 05000W 04000W 03000W 02000W UL10 WAL"

My question is: What does the Expected route information mean?

Thanks in advance for any help in deciphering the expected route information!

2

Really basically:

J517 is a (J)et Route that goes to a navigational aid, in this case YMM, which is Fort McMurray up in Alberta.

The numbers followed by W are longitudes on the route (100 degrees West, 90 West, etc…) The aircraft might be using the North Atlantic Track system (Google it!)

The aircraft then picks up another airway approaching England (UL10) and then another navigational aid “WAL” ( I can’t find out the real name, sorry).

And then on to Heathrow.

This has been a highly simplified answer!!!

Enjoy your ride…

3

pthomas745;

Thanks for the quick and simplified response! I was just curious about the information. Being aircraft/piloting ignorant, I didn’t want a detailed technical answer.

The commercial pilot I referenced directed me to FlightAware after I mentioned that his flight (Sunwing 586) totally vanished from the local airport web status before it had actually reached the gate instead of showing it had arrived and was in customs. The in-airport displays still showed the flight as being in customs. Other flights by other carriers had previously remained on the web status page for up to an hour after they had arrived, so it appears to be an airport/airline specific issue. However, the FlightAware site is awesome for tracking flights, delays, etc., so I am a convert! It will be my flight status app of choice from now on.

Thanks again for the layman’s explanation!