How to Check If Your Flight Is Safe — Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Find Your Actual Route

Airlines do not always fly the shortest path between two airports. Weather, winds, airspace restrictions, and cost calculations all influence routing. To see where your flight actually goes, you need to look at recent actual tracks — not just the scheduled city pair.

Open Flightradar24 or FlightAware and search for your flight number. Look at the route map for the most recent 3-5 days of the same flight. This shows you the actual path the aircraft has been taking, including any recent reroutes.

Pay attention to whether the route has changed recently. If your London-to-Dubai flight suddenly started routing south through Egypt instead of overflying Turkey and Iraq, that tells you the airline has proactively adjusted for a reason.

Step 2: Identify the FIRs Your Flight Crosses

Global airspace is divided into Flight Information Regions (FIRs) — large blocks of airspace managed by a single country's air traffic control. Knowing which FIRs your flight transits tells you exactly whose airspace you will be in.

You can identify FIRs from the route map on Flightradar24 by noting which countries the track passes over. Each country typically manages one or more FIRs. For example, a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok might cross FIRs managed by Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Iran (or Iraq), Pakistan, India, and Thailand — or it might bypass Iran entirely through a southern route via Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The FlySafe airspace pages list current risk assessments organized by region and FIR, making it easy to look up the ones along your route.

Step 3: Check EASA Conflict Zone Advisories

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) publishes Conflict Zone Information Bulletins (CZIBs). These are the most important public documents for assessing airspace risk. CZIBs recommend that airlines either avoid an airspace entirely or fly above a minimum altitude when transiting it.

Visit the EASA CZIB page and check whether any of the FIRs along your route are listed. Each bulletin specifies the geographic area, recommended minimum altitude, and the reason for the advisory.

A CZIB does not mean flying through that airspace is prohibited — it means EASA recommends caution. Airlines must conduct their own risk assessment for any CZIB-listed airspace they choose to use. Most European carriers treat CZIBs as de facto restrictions. Our EASA CZIBs 2026 data page tracks all current bulletins.

Step 4: Check FAA Airspace Warnings

The US Federal Aviation Administration publishes Special Federal Aviation Regulations (SFARs) that restrict US-registered aircraft and US airline operations in specific airspaces. Even if you are flying a non-US airline, FAA restrictions are a valuable signal — they reflect independent US intelligence assessments.

Current FAA-prohibited or restricted airspaces include areas over Ukraine, parts of Iraq, North Korea, Somalia, and others. The FAA also issues NOTAMs for shorter-term restrictions. You can search the FAA NOTAM system or check FlySafe's coverage for a more readable summary.

Step 5: Review Your Airline's Safety Record for This Route

Different airlines take different approaches to risk. Some carriers continue to fly routes that others avoid, and this is not always because the risk is unacceptable — it may reflect different intelligence, different risk appetite, or different insurance arrangements.

Check whether your airline has publicly commented on the relevant region. Major carriers often publish route advisories or schedule changes during escalations. You can also check whether other airlines flying the same city pair are using the same route or a different one — if most carriers avoid a specific airspace but yours does not, that is worth noting.

Industry safety ratings from bodies like IATA (through IOSA certification) and national regulators provide context, though they assess overall airline safety rather than route-specific risk.

Step 6: Check Recent NOTAMs for Route Changes

Notices to Air Missions (NOTAMs) are the aviation industry's real-time communication system. They announce temporary airspace closures, GPS interference warnings, military exercises, and other operationally relevant information.

NOTAMs are issued in a technical format that can be difficult to read. Free NOTAM search tools include the FAA NOTAM Search, EAD Basic (for European NOTAMs), and various pilot briefing services. Look for NOTAMs along your route that mention airspace closures, restricted areas, or navigation warnings.

If you see a fresh NOTAM closing airspace that your flight normally transits, your airline is almost certainly already aware and adjusting. But it confirms that conditions are actively changing.