Earlier I wrote about Google Flights, probably the most useful tool for comparing airfare. In this post, I’d like to cover another website I constantly use when planning air travel, which is perhaps a little less obvious.
Continue reading: How To Determine Nonstop Flights From An Airport: Here Are The Tools I Use
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Funny you used Bishkek as an example! I just booked a whole lot of flights in the Stans and while I was not so much looking for non-stop flights per se, I used Wikipedia to see what airlines are actually serving these airports. I am now booked on TezJet (RJ85, which is cool), Centrum, AeroNomad, SilkAvia (incl. Let 410 ;-), Asman Airlines, Somon Air, SCAT Airlines (I know!) and the obvious Uzbekistan Airways.In and out of the region on LOT and Georgian Airways...
I also used the airport pages on Wikipedia (and the website of the airports) to look up how to best get to and from the city.
So yes, Wikipedia is a great tool for such exercises!
I used to use wikipedia for this, but I generally don't see any advantage of reading typed out cities over just using the map feature of google flights to find all nonstop options.
I’ve been using FlightConnections for years. I originally signed up during a holiday season for a half off promotion. Every December, when it renews, they continued to honor the original price I paid during the promotion. It is certainly a deal that I can’t see myself giving up. I use that site for nearly every trip that I construct.
I do this too, Ben, but I automate it. I maintain an Excel workbook that pulls data directly from Wikipedia, with a separate tab for each of my “destination” airports. That way, I don’t have to open multiple Wikipedia pages and scroll through the Airlines and Destinations tables every time.
On top of that, I’ve written a small script that proactively filters out carriers I have no interest in flying........Air India, for example.
I thought this was commonly known, but if you go to Google Flights and put in an origin airport and a general destination (like "Europe"), it will turn into a map display. Select "nonstop flights" only, and drag the map around and it will enable all airports of nonstop flights to appear. And you can select by alliance, etc.
This. The only issue is that you also have to enter a date, and if a flight does not operate on that date (e.g., because it doesn't operate 7 days per week, or it's seasonal) you'll miss it. But of course you can get around this by looking at several dates.
There are also a few airlines that Google Flights doesn't cover. For example, one or two tiny airlines in the Bahamas.
Was going to mention Google Flights Explore function, too, but clearly I'm not the only one.
To the date thing, though, you don't have to select a specific day (you can). You can also say "next 6 months", a particular month, etc.
I some times use https://info.flightmapper.net/route/YY_SEA_LHR
It gives detailed information such as day of the week and when the flight is valid until, useful for seasonal flights.
I too use FlightsFrom nearly daily, and I particularly enjoy filtering by alliance.
In Google (not Google Flights) type “Flight time from XXX”, replacing the XXX with an airport code. It then lists all direct flights from that airport. Very occasionally I find a glitch, but it’s a good place to start.
I use Wikipedia too, and when I saw this headline on OMAAT, I did not expect Ben to use the same method! But glad to learn of others. I wonder if the Wikipedia pages are often out of date? I suppose routes don't change *that* much.
For me, FlightConnections is perfect. Definitely recommend checking them out. I've seen routes added there first before I'd seen any news of them being added.
What's the best site for determining schedules, especially for those flights that don't operate on a daily basis?
Man, service has really been cut from Bishkek. I was there in 2014 and it seemed like it was having somewhat of a tourism boom. I'm surprised TK dropped it.
Routes do change somewhat, but I have found that people typically keep the "Airlines and Destinations" section up to date on Wikipedia really close to real time news (I assume it is likely passionate people who love their respective home airports).
I used to use Wikipedia but Flightconnections is now my go to. Visuals, plus you can even drill down to city pairs, aircraft type or find out a particular airline's network.
Thank you Ben and everyone else …. every day is a school day and today I have learned such a lot from you ‘lot’ …. 🙂
I wish there was something superior though. Ben, remember the recent direct UA flight from Maui to Newark (with “no-window window seat” drama) that operated on a few Saturdays in December and January? It didn’t appear on Wikipedia or any of my other searches…
And how exactly is this going to help on flights which have stops on the same flight number? such as Turkish Airlines' Istanbul-Singapore/Kuala Lumpur-Sydney/Melbourne, Air China's Beijing-Madrid-Sao Paulo/Havana, Emirates' Dubai-Bangkok-Hong Kong/Siem Reap/Da Nang?
Honestly, be comprehensive or don't fecking bother.
I like the visuals too of Flightconnections, but it only shows what's published now and it doesn't always have future service. Also it's quite annoying that schedules beyond 2 months is "premium" and requires payment. And if you want to use their mobile app, it's also "premium".
Typing the airport code, then airport wiki like "SFO Airport Wiki" is how I jump directly to an airport wiki page and avoid the AI slop pages.
While your username seriously checks out, may I suggest something a bit more accurate like "Miserable" or "Wretched".
It's honestly hard to tell what exactly your point is, and thus I don't know if this helps or not (not that you really deserve it) but if you search the airports of any of your examples all of those cities are listed as destinations, with a footnote you can click that provides the extra context of there being a stop between. Lighten up pal.
Back in the 90s, I flew a bit for business (no road warrior by far). I became convinced I needed the OAG pocket guide and subscribed. Travel agents would have a phone-book-sized variant. Want to get from ABQ to PIT? You look up PIT and see all the nonstops to PIT. If there were ABQ options, OK. But, if not, you'd pick a city, say STL, ORD, DFW, etc., that had a PIT nonstop, and look up that city to see if it had a n/s from ABQ until you gormed a connection.
One correction... you do have to enter a date initially, but then you can click the date box and change to "flexible dates" and search all destinations that have a flight in the next six months.