Forgot this:

With the high costs of fuel, why do these planes not fly the shortes routes to their destinations? Well, why do they seem to NOT even have a destination? Turning circles and making "X" patterns conservesf fuel? And what about the tic tac toe patterns? We need to check these airplanes! They are wasting too much fuel!


They make circles because air traffic control asks them to, awaiting landing cue.

Take a look at any map of air routes and you'll see "tic tac toe" (commonly known as "grid") patterns.