Might we be seeing some of these for more localised airlines (like Alaska, Frontier, or one of the European airlines I haven't heard of)? I think that might be an interesting and more difficult addition to this series.
Sure, I do take suggestions! The thing is, what I think makes my quizzes a little "special" compared to others is the route lines, which I'm not sure would work with many of the non-flag carrying airlines in Europe, like say WizzAir or Ryanair, since they follow the point-to-point model instead of the hub-and-spoke one. If you are looking for some very unique airlines, TheRealGrantma made some quizzes about Air Greenland and Air Koryo.
Short answer: I use Python, the Cartopy package to be exact.
Long answer: I create a map in Cartopy with the equirectangular projection (which is the closest to the default JetPunk map projection) and add the lines with a geodetic transformation so that they connect any two points using the shortest path on a globe, not on a flat map. Cartopy exports this to an SVG file, which I then clean up (remove colours, simplify the lines' paths so that they are curves, and so on). In the meantime I use JetPunk's Place Dots on a Map tool to make an SVG with the airports' coordinates. I then combine the two SVGs (which is actually not that easy, since the JetPunk map projection is not exactly equirectangular). For this map in particular, I also had to cut the JetPunk-made SVG to have it centered on Singapore.
Cartopy is quite a powerful tool, although it's far from perfect or user friendly. I also used it for my Countries in a Spinning Globe quiz, where I asked if anyone wanted a tutorial-style blog on how I made that quiz using Cartopy, but since nobody showed interest I never made it
Hey, I'm looking to make a cathay pacific map based quiz, and I really like your aesthetic. Would you be able to make a tutorial/give pointers on using Cartopy?
Hey! I would recommend getting involved with Cartopy only if you are already familiar with basic coding as well as SVG manipulation. Creating the map and features is fairly straightforward, but always followed by hours of cleaning up the result, since Cartopy was not developed with JetPunk in mind.
You can find the official documentation on cartopy.readthedocs.io . Basically all I do in Cartopy is to set the axes according to the projection, plot the points as "markers" and the routes as simple geometries, all while feeding "transform=ccrs.Geodetic()" to the plotting functions to tell Cartopy to draw according to the shortest path on a globe.
I don't think I will be making a full tutorial, mainly because it would be fairly convoluted (I believe there must be easier ways to get the resulting maps). And also, if I am allowed to be a tad selfish, I wouldn't really want somebody straight up copying the quiz idea and execution, it that makes sense :)
I got all but one...couldn't find the last one. Turns out it was hiding behind NYC. When I looked back at it, there are even two separate lines going to that area from Singapore - guess I just missed it...
I only missed Singapore, Medan and Penang because there were no lines to those cities, that was the confusing thing. I thought it was only flights from Singapore to other places.
Hey @GlobalCitizen, can you elaborate on the route lines missing? All destinations have a route line that disappears once the destination is guessed, with the obvious exception of Singapore itself which is the start of all routes (and I don't think Singapore Airlines will be offering a Singapore-to-Singapore flight any time soon :) )
Were the route lines to Medan and Penang not showing for you?
They do! (Which is why Hong Kong is included in the quiz, I don't understand if the comment was supposed to mean HKG was missing...?)
This comment made me wonder: what is the international route with the most daily flights from the same airline? And after some thorough research (~15 minutes looking around busy airports on FlightConnections) the answer seems to be Hong Kong to Taipei, which Cathay Pacific flies a whopping 12 times a day, and 13 times a day on occasion!
There's the near ones that are logical like Jakarta and Bangkok, and then there's the far ones that still make sense like Paris and New York, and then there's Copenhagen...
• Changed the destinations to reflect the current offering
• Remade the SVG from scratch
• Added a few type-ins for airports' names
• I decided to no longer include ICAO codes, IATA codes remain accepted unless they interfere with the rest of the quiz
• I decided to switch from a more holistic sourcing methodology (FlightConnections) to a more realistic one (the airline themselves)
I'll look into the two carriers you mentioned!
Long answer: I create a map in Cartopy with the equirectangular projection (which is the closest to the default JetPunk map projection) and add the lines with a geodetic transformation so that they connect any two points using the shortest path on a globe, not on a flat map. Cartopy exports this to an SVG file, which I then clean up (remove colours, simplify the lines' paths so that they are curves, and so on). In the meantime I use JetPunk's Place Dots on a Map tool to make an SVG with the airports' coordinates. I then combine the two SVGs (which is actually not that easy, since the JetPunk map projection is not exactly equirectangular). For this map in particular, I also had to cut the JetPunk-made SVG to have it centered on Singapore.
Hope that answers your question! :)
You can find the official documentation on cartopy.readthedocs.io . Basically all I do in Cartopy is to set the axes according to the projection, plot the points as "markers" and the routes as simple geometries, all while feeding "transform=ccrs.Geodetic()" to the plotting functions to tell Cartopy to draw according to the shortest path on a globe.
I don't think I will be making a full tutorial, mainly because it would be fairly convoluted (I believe there must be easier ways to get the resulting maps). And also, if I am allowed to be a tad selfish, I wouldn't really want somebody straight up copying the quiz idea and execution, it that makes sense :)
Guangzhou and Moscow are suspended.
Madrid is terminated.
Cairns, Darwin, Vancouver, Chennai, Kochi, Pune, and Kathmandu had been reopened.
Medan, Penang and Phuket are missing.
Some new routes are Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Cebu, Davao, Newark and Da Nang.
Were the route lines to Medan and Penang not showing for you?
This comment made me wonder: what is the international route with the most daily flights from the same airline? And after some thorough research (~15 minutes looking around busy airports on FlightConnections) the answer seems to be Hong Kong to Taipei, which Cathay Pacific flies a whopping 12 times a day, and 13 times a day on occasion!