Turbulence during mid-flight can be unsettling, regardless of your level of nervousness. Things start to get a little bumpy when the seatbelt indicator illuminates, and you travel smoothly for one minute.

Additionally, although turbulence is generally not a cause for concern, specific flight paths are more likely to encounter it than others. However, knowing precisely what turbulence is and why it occurs is helpful before going further.

What Exactly Is Turbulence in The Air

Turbulence is the chaotic air movement caused by wind shearing or forced airflow over mountains. The atmosphere is a large fluid with waves propagating globally. As the air becomes unstable, it breaks into fast-moving swirls, causing aircraft to shake when encountering turbulence.

Less than 1% of the atmosphere has severe turbulence, even though it can be quite dangerous.

She said it is much more likely that you will experience mild turbulence, which won’t be harmful but will shake you up and possibly spill a few drinks. Certain kinds of turbulence, such as clear air turbulence, have the drawback of appearing out of nowhere and throwing you around the aircraft as you move. Because of this, it’s best to wear your seat belt whenever feasible.

The 2023 most turbulent flight routes are revealed by Turbli’s research of 150,000 flight paths. The “eddy dissipation rate,” gauges the degree of turbulence at a particular spot, was used to rank the top 10. The 1,900-kilometer stretch connecting Santiago, Chile, and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was the route with the highest turbulence. The most tumultuous long-haul route was the 5,223-kilometer trek between Tokyo and Kathmandu. The top 10 routes were all short-haul flights.

The 10 most turbulent flight routes in the world

1. Santiago (SCL) – Santa Cruz (VVI)

2. Almaty (ALA) – Bishkek (FRU)

3. Lanzhou (LHW) – Chengdu (CTU)

4. Centrair (NGO) – Sendai (SDJ)

5. Milan (MXP) – Geneva (GVA)

6. Lanzhou (LHW) – Xianyang (XIY)

7. Osaka (KIX) – Sendai (SDJ)

8. Xianyang (XIY) – Chengdu (CTU)

9. Xianyang (XIY) – Chongqing (CKG)

10. Milan (MXP) – Zurich (ZRH)