Flight plan segmentation for en route diversion destinations

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for segmenting a planned route of travel for indicating suggested or recommended diversion destinations with respect to those segments. One exemplary method of presenting diversion airports involves identifying a segmentation criterion for a flight plan, determining one or more diversion suitability distributions along a flight path defined by the flight plan, transforming the one or more diversion suitability distributions from a true distance scale to an effective distance scale based at least in part on meteorological conditions, and identifying a location for a segment boundary along the flight path based on an extrema of the one or more diversion suitability distributions within a portion of the flight path defined by the segmentation criterion on the effective distance scale. The method continues by providing graphical indicia of the flight path segment defined by the segment boundary and a diversion airport associated therewith.