Inter-continental air routes
Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"
Meaning
Inter-continental air routes are regular flight paths that link one continent with another. On a world map they form a clear east-west belt across the Northern Hemisphere. The network is densest over the eastern USA, Western Europe and Southeast Asia. Africa, Asiatic Russia and South America have few air services. So does the Southern Hemisphere between 10° and 35° latitude, because it has few people, little land and lower development.
Example
Flights between New York and London cross the North Atlantic. This is one of the busiest stretches of the belt. Other main nodes, meaning meeting points of routes, include Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore and Tokyo.
Don't confuse with
- Northern Atlantic sea route: the busiest ocean shipping lane, called the "Big Trunk Route". It is a sea route for ships. Air routes are flight paths.
Related concepts
- Air transport
- Big Inch pipeline
- Central Asia-China gas pipeline
- Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline
- TAPI pipeline