Northwest Airlines the best airline for less turbulence on your flight

Usually, when there is a large flare up of turbulence on a popular route, I like to compare which routings airlines take through the areas. Many airlines will change altitudes a lot to avoid rough air, but Northwest takes the top spot by giving potentially turbulent areas a wide berth. Back in March of 2006, there was some moderate turbulence over Colorado, and I looked at the flight paths taken by airlines in this forum post. Today, I see SIGMETs obscuring part of the flight path indicating the chance for severe turbulence. I wanted to know, does Northwest still use this policy in their flight planning? The answer is clearly yes.

Here are the advisories for the evening of December 13th, 2006. The usual flight path for Las Vegas-Detroit is an arc which usually runs right through Colorado and in the middle of the ‘red zones’ on this map. This path is most likely used to save fuel, a large expense to the airlines.

Here are the routings used by different flights that left at around the same time.

Northwest Airlines NWA1192

As you can see, Northwest gives a wide berth to most of the activity, as well as it can.

America West/USAirways 96

America West/USAirways 96

Spirit Airlines 116

Spirit Airlines 116.

Pilot Reports of Turbulence

Pilot reports of Turbulence.

Northwest airlines pioneered the best turbulence forecasting in the business, so much so that other airlines actually purchase the data from Northwest.

Let’s be clear. Northwest is doing this for the comfort of their passengers. Flying through moderate turbulence is no more dangerous than a bumpy road, yet many people would prefer a smoother flight. Let Northwest know you appreciate this by patronizing them whenever you can and letting them know exactly why you fly with them.

Tracking maps are from flightaware.com.

Written by tb_neg on December 13th, 2006 with 9 comments.
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9 comments

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chuckbiz
#1. December 14th, 2006, at 12:22 AM.

Wow - now that is cool.

I was on a flight 1478 from Phoenix to Denver this afternoon and about 45 minutes out of Phoenix, it was light to moderate chop through that area. Not unpleasant but a rough ride. Seems like silow1 all the way to larks arrival is always a mess with mountain wave and other disturbances morning noon and night. Any thoughts?

tb_neg
#2. December 14th, 2006, at 1:55 AM.

re: #1

PHX is known for it’s high temperature bumps and DEN for it’s mountain wave activity. Outside of relocating, hope for the winds to be in the right direction, slow enough, to avoid the bumps. Mountains are like rocks in a stream, it just makes the air less smooth.

Jon
#3. December 14th, 2006, at 2:23 AM.

Whew! Thankfully we bought our tickets for our flight this Saturday on Northwest…

Calgary to Minneapolis then Minneapolis to Orlando.

Any predictions?

Dewayne
#4. December 15th, 2006, at 10:39 PM.

Flew PHX to DEN over Thanksgiving. I was worried about a rough ride, but it was as smooth as could be. DEN to ATL was like glass. Great flights for my holidays!

Laura B
#5. February 18th, 2007, at 11:45 AM.

Does United purchase/use this data? I am a phobic flyer -haven’t been on a plane in a year and half, need to travel this coming Wed 2/21 Boston - San Fran. I would love to know they have data available to their pilots and more importanly, use it, even if it means using more fuel during a flight. Thanks.

tb_neg
#6. February 18th, 2007, at 3:33 PM.

Laura B

All the airlines get this data from one source or another. United reports turbulence encounters to the federal database, see this article (although the article is quite old, the data source I use gets reports from United all the time.) I don’t believe that United uses Northwest’s data, but it’s hard to know who’s using what.

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/asr97/insituturb.html

Most airlines do their best to avoid turbulence, and most of it can be avoided by a simple change in altitude. Since United is a strong participant in this program, and since avoiding turbulence is in the airlines best interest for passengers and crew alike, I’d say you have nothing to worry about. Be sure to register for our forum and post a turbulence forecast request in the personalized forecast forum one day before your flight, and I’ll do my best to forecast how bumpy your flight will be.

There are more exciting developments in the world of turbulence forecasting coming online in the next few years. Over time, flights will get smoother and smoother as forecasting gets better and the data is shared.

I’ve just read that United is taking part in some very advanced turbulence experiments, so I’d say United is up there with Northwest in my eyes.

Mention from Turbulenceforecast.com
#7. June 6th, 2007, at 2:59 PM.

Northwest Airlines continues to go above, beyond, and around turbulence - Turbulence Forecast Blog: today makes for very interesting analysis of airlines and their willingness to avoid turbulence. A previous blog post from ...

Mention from Turbulenceforecast.com
#8. October 14th, 2007, at 9:51 PM.

FlightAware’s Cool New Flight Tool - Turbulence Forecast Blog: When you search for flights, but don’t know the flight number, you can enter a city pair, and it ...

Mention from Turbulenceforecast.com
#9. April 14th, 2008, at 9:44 PM.

Northwest and Delta to Merge - Turbulence Forecast Blog: Turbulence Forecast has always been a proponent of Northwest Airlines for many reasons. First and foremost of interest to ...

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