Flight Time Calculator

Calculate flight time between any two airports using IATA codes, Haversine distance, and average cruise speed. Results in km, miles, and nautical miles — all free.

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Pure flight time (cruise)
Ground buffer (taxi + takeoff + landing): 30 minutes
Total block time
Average cruise speed: 800 km/h (432 kt)

About Flight Time Estimation

Flight time between two airports is not a single constant — it is the outcome of several physical and operational factors stacked on top of the great-circle distance. The calculator here starts from the Haversine formula, which gives the shortest path over Earth's curved surface between two points expressed as latitude and longitude. That shortest path is divided by 800 km/h, a representative cruise speed for modern commercial twinjets such as the Boeing 737, Airbus A320, Boeing 777, and Airbus A350.

The 30-minute ground buffer accounts for the parts of the journey that are not cruise: pushback, taxi out, holding short of the runway, takeoff roll, initial climb, descent, final approach, landing, and taxi in. On a short hop between two nearby regional airports, these phases can represent nearly half of the total block time; on a long-haul flight, they shrink to a small fraction.

Wind is the largest uncontrolled variable. The jet stream blows at 150 to 300 km/h from west to east at cruise altitude and can shorten an eastbound transoceanic flight by an hour or add an hour to the same route westbound. Airlines build this asymmetry into their published schedules, which is why London to New York is typically scheduled for about an hour longer than New York to London despite the identical distance. Other factors — air traffic routing, runway congestion, seasonal weather deviations, and aircraft type — typically change the real block time by 5 to 15 minutes on top of the Haversine estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the calculator use 800 km/h as the average speed?

800 km/h (about 432 knots or 497 mph) is a practical average cruise speed across the most common narrow-body and wide-body commercial jets. A Boeing 737 cruises around 828 km/h, an Airbus A320 around 828 km/h, a Boeing 777 around 905 km/h, and an Airbus A350 around 903 km/h, but real block-time averages drop once you include climb, descent, and taxi. 800 km/h gives a single number that stays within 10 percent of published schedules on the vast majority of routes.

What is the difference between great-circle distance and ground track?

Great-circle distance is the shortest path between two points on a sphere — the line an aircraft would fly if nothing else got in the way. Ground track is the actual path flown after air traffic control routing, airspace restrictions, SIDs and STARs at each airport, and weather avoidance are applied. Ground tracks are typically 2 to 8 percent longer than the great circle, which is one of the main reasons actual flight times can exceed a Haversine-only estimate.

How does the jet stream affect real flight times?

The jet stream is a band of strong westerly winds at cruise altitude that can blow at 150 to 300 km/h. Eastbound transatlantic and transpacific flights ride the jet stream and can arrive 30 to 90 minutes early, while westbound flights on the same route fight a headwind and arrive late by a similar margin. Airlines build this asymmetry into their published schedules, so a London–New York flight is roughly an hour longer than New York–London even though the distance is identical.

Why does my airline schedule differ from this estimate?

Published airline schedules are block times — gate-to-gate — and include padding for runway congestion, air traffic delays, and seasonal headwinds on specific routes. Carriers also intentionally inflate schedules to improve on-time performance statistics. Our estimate targets the average case with a 30-minute ground buffer, so expect real schedules to run 5 to 20 minutes longer on congested hubs and heavily trafficked city pairs like LHR–JFK or LAX–SFO.

Is the calculator accurate for short-haul versus long-haul flights?

Accuracy is best for medium- and long-haul flights (1,500 km and up) where cruise dominates the profile and 800 km/h is a representative average. On very short hops under 500 km, a higher share of the flight is climb and descent, so the effective average speed is lower and the 30-minute ground buffer plays a larger role. Expect the estimate to be within 10 to 15 minutes of the real block time on short-haul and within 20 to 30 minutes on long-haul.

Methodology

Flight time is computed from first principles: great-circle distance via the Haversine formula, divided by an average commercial cruise speed of 800 km/h (432 knots). A fixed 30-minute ground buffer is added for taxi out, takeoff, climb, descent, and taxi in. This matches how airlines report block time and is accurate to within roughly 10 percent for most short-, medium-, and long-haul flights. Real-world results vary with aircraft type, wind (especially the jet stream), air traffic control routing, and runway configurations at either end.