Experts have identified the most turbulent flight routes where cases of turbulence were most frequently recorded in 2023.
Turbulence is the least favorite part of a flight for many people. While this phenomenon occurs regularly, it often causes anxiety and fear even in the most experienced travelers. According to the statistics from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, severe turbulence occurs on only one flight out of 50,000.
Over the past 16 years in the United States, the average number of injuries related to serious turbulence is 33 per year. Most injuries occur when passengers are not wearing their seatbelts.
Most Turbulent Flight Routes: Flying from Chile to Colombia
The specialized portal Turbli, which forecasts turbulence, analyzed around 150,000 flight routes worldwide and compiled the top 10 most turbulent routes of 2023.
The routes are ranked by the “vortex dissipation rate,” which Ignacio Gallego Marcos, the founder of Turbli, describes as the “measure of turbulence intensity at a given point.”
According to the experts, the most turbulent flight route in the world in 2023 is the approximately 3000 km air journey between Santiago in Chile, and the city of Santa Cruz in Bolivia.
The second most turbulent route by the number of such occurrences is the route between Almaty in Kazakhstan and the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek.
Also in the top five for the number of turbulence incidents are the Lanzhou-Chengdu route in China, the route from Nagoya Airport to Sendai City in Japan, and the flight from Milan to Geneva, named the most turbulent in Europe.
Three domestic routes in China, including flights from Xi’an to Lanzhou, Chengdu, and Chongqing, are also in the top 10 for the number of turbulent incidents. Another route in Japan (Osaka to Sendai) and the flight between Milan and Zurich complete the list.
