fork me
I have changed this
Okay I have a question about the flight paths. Do flights tend to follow the same flight path? For example will a flight leaving Gatwick today for Barcelona follow the same flight path as the same flight leaving in 2 weeks time? I guess that take off and the approach to the airport may be slightly different depending on the other traffic in the area.
Not always, no, it depends on various factors, mainly the weather, flight paths change to avoid turbulence. Sometimes they also change to avoid congested areas, or areas that have become dangerous.
Flightdiary just puts the quickest great circle route, but flightradar24 actually uses live information from a box on the plane itself so it should be correct. Where it misses the runway, it usually means google maps isn't that accurate. Some airports always miss for that reason.