SimBrief, the widely used flight planning tool among Microsoft Flight Simulator and flight simulation enthusiasts, has just received a major update: real-world routes across Europe are now available to all users.
Until now, SimBrief’s route database primarily featured authentic North American flight plans. European coverage, however, was more limited, largely due to data access restrictions and the complexity of consolidating routing information from multiple airspaces. That has finally changed!
With this update, SimBrief now includes real-world routes for most flights within Europe, as well as expanded coverage between Europe and nearby continents. These new routings are even Eurocontrol-validated, which definitely brings a new level of realism and operational accuracy to virtual flight planning.
Once you open the SimBrief dispatch page, you’ll notice a subtle but telling change: a green “Real World” label next to certain route strings. That’s the sign you’re looking at an officially validated routing, a direct reflection of what airlines are filing today.
You can even take it one step further. From the Flight Briefing page, SimBrief lets you validate your route directly with Eurocontrol via the IFPUV Free Text Editor. Click “IFPS Validate,” copy the ICAO flight plan, and check it yourself. If it returns “No Errors,” congratulations — you’ve just filed a route that would clear the system in real life.
There’s one caveat, and it’s an important one. Because these routes are based on the latest Eurocontrol data, users running older AIRAC cycles (that is, those without a Navigraph subscription) might see some mismatches or even invalid legs.
For Navigraph subscribers, though, everything’s synced automatically. You get up-to-date real-world routings across both North America and Europe. A first for SimBrief.
Real-world European routes are available now for all SimBrief users. To read more and see examples in action, check out the official Navigraph blog post.
