All of my KLM flights have been a great experience. Very friendly staff, awesome service, and free drinks.

After doing a lot of flying the last two years I've realized what a difference a friendly crew makes.

My understanding is that they currently deliberately avoid Iraq (my dc-dubai flight in sept did), in favor of flying over Iran for many western flights. Airlines do this often (look up tel aviv to mumbai on flightaware for a fun flight path... or any flights from azeribaijan enclave to capital, or dubai-yerevan, these routes are loaded with geopolitics)

Yep - even Eastern carriers are doing that now. My comment downthread has more on my personal experience [0].

El Al 73, 50% longer than it "should" be because of a detour around Saudi Arabia: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ELY73/history/20161230/0...

Azerbaijan Airlines J2261 doesn't seem to be that much longer, even though it has to avoid the Karabakh region. (At first I thought you were referencing the Ստեփանակերտի Օդանավակայան/Stepanakert Airport, which interestingly has no IATA code.)

Dubai to Yerevan doesn't seem that geopolitically complicated though - seems to fly just over Iran mostly. I guess the end of the flight could get tricky though, with Armenia saying that Azerbaijan would shoot down Armenian planes that go over Azerbaijan. The flight I found is FDB715, https://flightaware.com/live/flight/FDB715/history/20170103/...

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13331458

I'm surprised you can fly into Stepanakert! If I had to go there, I'd take a car

Thanks for the data here, these are really interesting concepts because of how abstracted they are. I would think many passengers don't realize these types of choices are made by airlines on a daily basis.

Hah, you actually can't. The airport is closed, since the chance of any flight there being shot down is very high (although the director of the airport said there would be flights in a matter of months... in 2011)

And you're very welcome! I love looking at these maps. I fly a bunch and it's only in the past three months or so that I've really been considering the strange routes that people fly.

Flew over Iran on a Dubai - LAX flight many years ago. And kept going north, over Russia, over the Arctic, and down across Alaska. Was pretty amazing to watch out the window. Beautiful endless nothing.

Among European airlines it's hard to beat Air France in terms of food and wine quality. They are head and shoulders above anyone else when it comes to catering, even in the economy class. Although, my experience with Ukrainian Airlines and KLM is similar to yours -- meals and wine are surprisingly good.

Economy class with emirates is quite cheap. I've flown with them several times from Europe to Asia on account of it being the cheapest ticket available. They offer free drinks and staff is very friendly. It is quite a detour though.

which flights are over Iraq?

I flew Kyiv Borispol (Ukraine, KBP) to Tehran (Iran, IKA) recently, and our flight went over the northeast tip of Iraq. Normally the flight (Ukraine 751) flies close, but not over, Iraq - around 33 miles from the border [0]. In my case, however, because of harsh weather we went over Iraq for a bit, which was definitely interesting. I know Iraqi airspace isn't the same as Syrian airspace, but it's definitely pretty damn scary being a few minutes' flying time from ISIS strongholds.

[0] https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AUI751/history/20170104/...

I flew London -> Dubai with Emirates flew years back and I was pretty pleased to see that we over pretty much the length of Iraq. You're a few dozen thousand feet up on a route that's followed many times per day - I don't think it's particularly dangerous.

Unfortunately Iraq's situation tends to go from bad (but acceptable to fly over) to very bad (when you don't want to fly over it.)

Currently, Emirates does not fly over Iraq for Emirates 30 (LHR-DXB), instead choosing to pay the higher fees of the Iranian government and fly over Iranian airspace. The vast majority of airlines have stopped flying over Iran, and nobody is crazy enough to fly over Mosul, which is ISIS controlled, which was a few minutes' flight time from where I was.

Interestingly, Emirates delayed switching most flights from flying over Iraq to flying over Iran until 2015 because of the higher costs for flying over Iran, which is why you get a lot of people (like you) that flew over Iraq.

Flying is a lot more complex than most people realize.

Ah yes - my flight would be definitely have been pre-ISIS. I distinctly remember seeing Mosul, Baghdad and Basra "nearby" on the in-flight map