Definition
The route of flight that a pilot submits to ATC in the flight plan, listing the departure airport, intended airways, fixes, or navigation points, and the destination airport. It is the route the pilot has formally requested and is on record before departure.
Plain English
The path you wrote down on your flight plan and gave to ATC before takeoff. It is the route you asked to fly.
Context Anchor
Seen in instrument flight planning, clearance delivery, and radar-controlled departure discussions, especially when comparing what was filed with what air traffic control actually cleared.
Derivation
Filed' comes from the practice of placing documents on record. When you 'file' a flight plan, you are formally submitting it into the ATC system. The filed route is the route on that submitted record.
Why Pilots Care
ATC expects the aircraft to follow the filed route unless an amendment is issued, directly affecting navigation, separation, and clearance compliance.
Intuition Check
Do not assume “filed route” means “approved route.” It means the route submitted and on record; the clearance tells you whether that route is actually authorized.
Example Sentence 1
After takeoff, the controller vectored us off the filed route and then cleared us direct to a fix further along it.
Example Sentence 2
The pilot reviewed the filed route on the chart before calling clearance delivery.