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Where to find flight path information
The first way to find information about flight paths around an airport is the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) which contains details of regulations, procedures and other information relevant to the aircraft operation in a particular country. It is generally issued by or on behalf of the respective civil aviation administration and constitutes the source of each country's basic and official aeronautical information.
The structure and content of the document are standardised following the international agreement of ICAO Annex 15. Generally, AIP has three parts: GEN (general), ENR (en route) and AD (aerodromes).
In order to find the information related to airports, the reader has to access section AD, where details and graphics of all aerodromes (public and private) are published, including SIDs and STARs, which aircraft must follow from or to the airport. The visual reference of these trajectories is not very precise, however, it gives a rough idea.
Aeronautical Information Services around the world (EUROCONTROL)
(source: AIP Spain, Madrid Barajas Airport)
AIPs are cumbersome documents and are not meant to be used operationally. Commercial organisations make relevant extracts to inform flight information publications (like Flight Information Publication) of convenient size to be used on aircraft.
Another way to find information about flight paths is to search the airport's website for information on operations and the noise they create, including explanations about the general configurations of the airport with routings. As the people living in the vicinity of airports demand more information, airports are slowly implementing information sharing on their websites. Three examples of this are: