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Enter the route distance and a typical cruising speed, plus a fixed allowance for climb, descent and taxiing. Cruise time is distance divided by speed; the allowance covers the parts of the flight that are not at cruise speed. The result is a direct flight estimate: add any layover time separately, and expect wind and routing to shift real times by minutes or more.
Flight time has two parts: cruise time and a ground and climb buffer. Cruise time is route distance divided by cruising speed, which gives hours when distance is in kilometres and speed is in kilometres per hour. The buffer, commonly 20 to 40 minutes and 30 minutes by default here, covers taxiing, takeoff, climb, descent and landing, which are not flown at cruise speed. Total flight time is cruise time plus that buffer.
Enter the route distance in kilometres, a cruising speed in kilometres per hour, and the climb, descent and taxi allowance in minutes. Use 850 km/h for a typical commercial jet if you do not know the aircraft type. This flight time estimator works best with an average cruising speed for your aircraft type, not a top speed. The calculator returns total flight time in minutes and hours, plus the cruise portion alone, so you can see how much of the trip is spent at cruise.
A commercial jet cruising speed typically sits around 800 to 965 km/h, which is 500 to 600 miles per hour. Common figures from competitor guides are: Boeing 737 about 460 to 480 knots, Airbus A320 about 470 to 490 knots, Boeing 777 about 490 to 510 knots, and Airbus A350 about 500 to 520 knots. In kilometres per hour, that is roughly 850 km/h for a 737 or A320 and 900 km/h or more for a 777 or A350. Turboprops and helicopters fly much slower, so use a lower speed for those aircraft.
Cruise time is 5,500 divided by 850, which is 6.47 hours, about 388 minutes. Add 30 minutes for climb, descent and taxi for a total of about 418 minutes, just under 7 hours. The same route in miles and mph is about 3,418 miles at 528 mph, giving the same cruise time, since the units cancel as long as distance and speed use matching units.
If your distance is in miles and your speed is in miles per hour, the same formula works: cruise time in hours is miles divided by mph, then add the buffer in minutes converted to hours. A 2,500 mile flight at 500 mph gives 5 hours of cruise plus a 30 minute buffer, which is 5 hours 30 minutes. A flight time calculator in km works the same way, so convert miles to kilometres by multiplying by 1.609 if you need the metric version.
London to New York is about 5,570 km. At 900 km/h, cruise time is about 6 hours 11 minutes, plus 30 minutes of buffer, giving about 6 hours 41 minutes in total. New York to Los Angeles is about 3,940 km, giving about 4 hours 23 minutes of cruise at 900 km/h, plus 30 minutes, for about 4 hours 53 minutes. Published schedules run longer than these estimates, since they include gate-to-gate time and schedule padding.
Why flight times vary comes down to wind, routing and air traffic. A tailwind from the jet stream can shorten an eastbound flight by an hour, while the same route westbound into a headwind runs longer, which is why the two directions differ. Aircraft also follow airways and tracks rather than a perfect straight line, adding a few percent to the distance. This calculator estimates a direct flight only: for a flight time with layover, add the layover duration to the direct estimate separately.
Short haul flights are typically under about 3 hours, long haul flights run 6 hours or more, and ultra long haul flights run beyond 12 hours, with the buffer mattering most on short routes. Great circle distance is the shortest path over the curved Earth between two points, computed with the haversine formula from airport coordinates. Real flown distance runs a little longer than great circle distance, typically by 1 to 5 percent, because of airways, weather and restricted airspace.
Flight time is distance divided by cruising speed, plus a buffer for taxiing, takeoff, climb, descent and landing. For example, 5,500 km at 850 km/h gives about 388 minutes of cruise, plus 30 minutes of buffer, for about 418 minutes in total.
Use about 850 km/h for a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, and about 900 km/h or more for a Boeing 777 or Airbus A350. The general commercial jet range is 800 to 965 km/h, which is 500 to 600 miles per hour.
Wind patterns, especially the jet stream, speed up eastbound flights and slow down westbound flights on the same route. An eastbound transatlantic flight can run an hour faster than the westbound return, even though the distance is the same.
No. This calculator estimates direct flight time only. For a connecting trip, run the direct estimate for each leg, then add the layover duration between flights to get total travel time.
A distance and speed estimate is usually within about 15 percent of the published schedule for a direct flight. Wind, routing, aircraft type and air traffic all shift real times, so treat the result as a planning estimate, not an airline schedule.
Great circle distance is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the Earth, following its curvature. It is computed from latitude and longitude with the haversine formula, and it is the standard reference distance airlines and flight planners use.
London to New York is about 5,570 km, giving about 6 hours 11 minutes of cruise at 900 km/h, plus a 30 minute buffer, for about 6 hours 41 minutes. Published schedules are usually longer, since they count gate-to-gate time.
New York to Los Angeles is about 3,940 km, giving about 4 hours 23 minutes of cruise at 900 km/h, plus 30 minutes of buffer, for about 4 hours 53 minutes. Westbound flights into prevailing winds often run a little longer.