The local NBA team is in China right now and I’ve been reading some articles in the local sports page about their trip. It sounded like they took the team’s private jet and that got me wondering about the airport and airspace logistics of a private flight. After some googling, it looks to me like for an intra-US flight they would file a flight plan with the proper authorities. I would assume they also request takeoff and landing slots from the appropriate airports. And, as I understand it, the big jets are always being watched by some air traffic control so that they keep away from each other.
For a flight between the US and China it looks like they need to file flight plans in China as well as the US, but what about the flight path between the countries? Does anyone have an overview of where all the planes are so they are kept away from each other? I know there’s a lot of empty airspace, but I’m wondering if there’s more oversight than just the pilots keeping an eye out for other planes.