Definition
The specific route of flight a pilot asks Air Traffic Control to assign when filing a flight plan or requesting a clearance, expressed as a sequence of waypoints, airways, fixes, or procedures from departure to destination.
Plain English
The path through the sky that the pilot is asking to fly. ATC may approve it as asked, or give a different route instead.
Context Anchor
You may hear this in flight planning, clearance discussions, radio communication, or training examples about listening carefully to what a pilot or controller actually said.
Derivation
Route comes through French from a word meaning a road or way. In aviation, routing keeps that basic idea: the way an aircraft is expected, assigned, or asked to go.
Why Pilots Care
It lets you plan fuel, time, and weather routing in advance; ATC may accept, modify, or deny it.
Intuition Check
Do not read requested routing as an approved route. It means the pilot asked for that route; it is not cleared until the proper approval or clearance is given.
Example Sentence 1
The pilot filed a requested routing direct to the destination, but ATC issued a clearance via two intermediate fixes instead.
Example Sentence 2
Clearance delivery read back the requested routing with one airway change added.