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Why is my flight duration different?
Plane travel times do often differ depending on the direction of travel, but this is caused by wind currents in the upper atmosphere called jet streams, and in the northern hemisphere it has a lengthening effect on flights from East to West.
Why are some flights to the same place longer than others?
Jet streams are, at their most basic, high-altitude air currents caused by atmospheric heating and the inertia of the earth’s rotation—and they’re the reason why flights from west to east are faster than the same route traversed in the opposite direction.
Is it faster to fly north or south?
Since the equator gets more sun than any other part, it will always have warmer air rising towards the north or south poles. This means that the air from the equator moving to the north or south poles will be moving faster than the ground it is over, resulting in winds always moving from the west to the east.
Does Earth rotation affect flight duration?
The rotation of the Earth has no direct significant effect on flight times in either direction. That’s to a first order approximation. As others have already said, since the Earth’s surface is (very nearly) spherical and is rotating rather than moving linearly, Coriolis effects can be significant.
How long is a flight from one place to another?
I was checking the flight duration between two places over a 2-3 month period. The flight duration for the same flight is different for different months. For example, some days the flight takes 13 hrs 10 minutes and some other days it’s 12 hrs over the same distance.
What happens when the time of departure changes?
If the slot time changes but the departure time remains the same an airline may chose to slow the plane a bit (or speed it up a bit) to compensate. Aircraft Loading: Aircraft efficiency (and subsequently speed) will vary a bit with the loading of the aircraft.
How is daylight savings time different in different countries?
Daylight Saving Time: different countries enter/leave (if they use it) DST in different dates. Example: the US and the UK change to DST 2 weeks apart, having a difference of only 4 hours between New York and London in that period, while normally they have 5.
Why does it take longer to fly east to west than west to East?
Flying east to west commonly takes longer than flying west to east because a high-altitude wind called the jet stream blows from the west, slowing the aircraft down. The jet stream always blows in the same direction because of the Earth’s rotation. Warm air from the equator rises and moves north or south towards colder regions.