How balloon flights in Cappadocia are decided
Balloon flights in Cappadocia are decided with a red, yellow or green flag for each sector and time window, set under the rules of Turkey’s civil aviation authority (SHGM) and published by the Kapadokya Slot Service Center (Kapadokya Slot Hizmet Merkezi, SHM), Kapadokya University, operating under SHGM authorisation. Red and yellow mean no take-off; green means a flight may go ahead, and the pilot and the operator make the final decision.
What each flag means
SHT-OPS-B, the instruction for balloon flight operations, defines the three flags for a set sector and time window.
The three flags, as SHT-OPS-B defines them
| Flag | What it means |
|---|---|
| Red | The weather is not suitable for flying: no balloon may take off, and a flight may not continue (Articles 5 and 24). |
| Yellow | Not suitable for now, but the weather may change by the end of the window: operators may prepare but not fly, and wait until the flag turns green or red (Articles 5 and 24). |
| Green | Flights may go ahead, on the decision of the operator and the pilot in command, who carry the whole responsibility. The instruction calls a green flag advisory (Articles 5 and 24). |
The board puts it the same way on its English page (read 16 Oct 2026): take-off approval is not possible under a red or yellow flag, and under a green flag the “final decision for flying is within the responsibility of the pilot and the establishment”.
Who sets the flags
A meteorological assessment group decides the flags. SHGM forms it for each balloon flight area from the pilots in command who fly there. The group’s pilot on duty starts from the weather reports and, when needed, checks conditions on the ground, then sends the final assessment to the Slot Service Center, which records it and publishes the flags (SHT-OPS-B, Articles 23 and 24).
Kapadokya University runs the Slot Service Center through its Hot Air Balloon and Aviation Studies Application and Research Center. Besides publishing the flags, the Slot Service Center assesses the operators’ take-off and airspace requests for the balloon flight areas it serves.
Before the flight, SHGM’s control pilots can check a flag decision, and it can be changed. A red flag, once published, is not changed after a new assessment (Article 24).
Sectors and secondary areas
Flags are given for each sector and time window of a flight area, so different sectors can have different flags (Articles 5 and 24). For Cappadocia the board shows three sectors, A, B and C, each with its own flag and hours.
Below them, the board lists secondary flight areas numbered 2 to 5, each marked suitable or not for secondary flights. Operators may ask the Slot Service Center for take-off approval from an area marked green, and approval comes from a control pilot and/or SHGM staff (the board’s wording, read 16 Oct 2026).
When the flags are set
The assessment starts the day before the flight with the weather reports and is finalised on the day of the flight, before take-off time. When the weather calls for it, a red flag can already be given the day before (Article 23).
On the board, each flag shows when it was last updated and the date and hours it is valid for. The board keeps Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), as its clock shows; Turkey is three hours ahead (UTC+3).
Why a green flag is not a promise
A green flag allows a flight; it does not order one. Before take-off, the pilot in command must make sure that the weather at the launch site allows a safe take-off and climb (SHT-OPS-B, Annex 1, BOP.BAS.150), and the operator and the pilot carry the decision (Article 24). So a flight can still be cancelled on a green morning.
The instruction also sets a wind limit for hot-air balloons: no flight with passengers when the surface wind at the time and place of take-off is above 10 knots (about 18.5 km/h), or when the wind forecast for the expected time and place of landing is above that limit (Article 13).
Poor visibility, cloud too close to the balloon, thermals and cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds also rule a flight out (Article 13).
What this means for your plan
Read the board, opens in a new tab
Our flight chance is an estimate, not a flag. cappadocia.ai does not show the day’s flags: for a given morning, read the board or ask your operator.
What happens if your flight is cancelled
SkyPlan switches a cancelled morning to its Plan B only on an official cancellation or an operator’s notice, never because of our estimate.
Where our data comes from
How we estimate the chance of a flight, and what an estimate can’t tell you.