Coverage Expansion — 25 to 270 FIRs
Milestone: 14 May 2026 · Type: capability · See public roadmap
On 14 May 2026, FlySafe risk scoring coverage expanded from 25 hand-seeded Middle East FIRs to 270 FIRs across 23 ICAO regions globally. The expansion adds new signal categories beyond conflict and GPS interference: pandemic events, political bans, volcanic ash crises, tropical cyclones, USA wildfire and VIP TFRs, ATC strikes, and civil unrest. Total airspace observability now covers 424 of 428 FIRs at GPS-interference-detection level, with 270 of those carrying full multi-source risk scoring.
From 25 to 270 — the expansion timeline
- 29 APR 2026 — LAUNCH25 hand-seeded Middle East FIRs at public launch
Initial coverage focused on the Middle East / Horn of Africa / South Asia corridor — the FIRs with highest aviation news intensity in early 2026 following the February cascade. Manually curated set.
- 29 APR 2026 — SAME DAYGPS interference observability extended to 424 FIRs
Second dimension — ADS-B-derived GPS interference detection — extended across nearly all global FIRs. This is light-touch coverage flagging GNSS-degradation patterns; it does not require localized news/regulator monitoring.
- 14 MAY 2026 — EXPANSIONRisk scoring coverage expanded to 270 FIRs across 23 ICAO regions
Two-week iteration cycle from launch. Coverage extended to volatile regions outside the initial Middle East band, with new signal categories beyond conflict-only. ICAO regions now covered include North America, Europe (East and West), South Asia, East Asia, Oceania, South America, Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and others.
New signal categories
Previously the FlySafe engine focused on conflict-zone events and GPS interference. The May expansion adds these disruption types to scoring:
Historical reference: COVID flight restrictions 2020–2022. Useful for backtest validation across multiple disruption types.
Russia 2022, Belarus, Qatar 2017–2021. Multi-year structural bans with carrier-nationality restrictions.
Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull 2010 to recent), Indonesia (active volcanoes), Pacific Ring of Fire.
Asia (typhoons), Pacific, Caribbean / Gulf of Mexico (hurricanes), Indian Ocean.
Western US wildfire-season Temporary Flight Restrictions; presidential and VIP movement TFRs.
France, Italy, Spain, Greece — recurring labor actions with predictable seasonal patterns.
Mass protests, coups, political unrest with airport-access implications.
Why this matters operationally
- →Beyond Middle East: Trip-planning agents, dispatch systems, and OTAs can now reason about airspace conditions on most commercially-relevant routes globally — not just the conflict corridor.
- →Non-conflict disruption types: Insurance underwriters get continuous indices for volcanic, weather, and labor disruption — not only war-risk corridors.
- →Single source for global itineraries: Search-time risk signal for OTAs covering global routes, not regional.
- →Consolidated feed: Dispatch teams reduce the number of regional services they aggregate manually.
Companion capabilities shipped earlier
The 270-FIR expansion builds on two related capabilities shipped earlier in 2026:
Every active FIR is classified A/B/C/D by independently-verifiable receiver coverage. Prevents the engine from claiming closure detection in regions where it physically cannot see traffic.
Routes outside our monitored airspace return null score with explicit coverage flag — never a misleading low number.
Approximately 700K aircraft positions ingested daily worldwide, joined nightly with completed-flight metadata to reconstruct trajectories. Foundation for both observability dimensions.
What's next on the roadmap
Selected items currently in progress or planned (full public roadmap at flysafe.zone/roadmap):
- •Real-route overlay using median-path ADS-B data (in progress)
- •Real-time NOTAM ingestion with diff alerting (planned Q4 2026)
- •Webhook filtering by route and FIR (in progress)
- •Public methodology page and backtest results page (planned Q3 2026)
- •Annual State of Airspace Risk report (planned Q1 2027)
Sources / references
- FlySafe public roadmap — flysafe.zone/roadmap — current capability matrix and shipped/planned items
- Roadmap item —
global-fir-expansion(status: shipped, 2026-Q4) - Public methodology — flysafe.zone/methodology
Related
Test the expanded coverage
Sandbox API access is free. Score any route across our 270 regions with risk scoring or 424 with GPS observability (of 428 total).
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