So yesterday our day consisted of White Plains, NY, to DC National to Nashville to Philadelphia to Knoxville. Needless to say it was a long day. Midway through the day we got a little tease of home as we passed over the top of our home airport en route from DCA to Nashville.
So the logical question is why did you fly so far out of your way to get to Nashville? The short answer is that Air Traffic Control has built "roadways in the sky" called arrival routes to ease congestion. If planes were coming from all directions all at once, it would cause mass chaos. So ATC creates arrivals. To merge onto these arrivals, aircraft are routed over certain points. The closest arrival point for Nashville from DC is over Knoxville. Hence why we got a sneak peak of home.
So next time your captain lists where you are going and you wonder "why are we going two hundred miles out of our way?" the answer is probably Air Traffic Control.
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