Know your flight before you board
Enter a route and date to see how long the flight really takes, where the air can get rough, and the closest airport the plane could divert to at every point along the way.
Turbulence
Nearest airport across the flight
Along the way
| In flight | Nearest airport | Distance | At cruise speed | Rough air |
|---|
What you're looking at
The route and times are estimates
The line is the shortest path between the two airports (a great circle). Real flights follow airways and daily oceanic tracks shaped by the jet stream and closed airspace, so the actual path can be a few hundred kilometres off, more on very long flights.
Flight time (wheels up to wheels down) is estimated from the distance and typical jet-stream winds: flights heading west at mid-latitudes are slowed by headwinds, and flights heading east are sped up. Gate to gate adds about 18 minutes of taxiing at departure and 8 at arrival, typical at busy airports. The day's actual winds can move the real time by 30 minutes or more either way.
How rough air is shown
Red outlines are live NOAA warnings of severe turbulence (SIGMETs), which forecasters issue for the next few hours only where turbulence is expected to be severe. They appear when the site runs on its own server and the flight is today or tomorrow.
The orange shading marks only the stretches where rough patches are common for the month of the flight, not today's weather: the jet stream (strongest in winter, and across the North Atlantic and North Pacific), mountain waves over big ranges like the Rockies, Andes, Himalayas and Greenland, and storms near the equator. Some bumps are also normal while climbing and descending through cloud. On any given day the real bumps can be somewhere else, so use the forecast links for the day itself.
Which airports count
Airports with a hard runway at least as long as the setting above, from the OurAirports database. A few remote or military fields are included because airlines really do use them as emergency alternates (Lajes in the Azores, Midway in the Pacific). Not every airport here is an approved alternate for a given airline.
How the times are worked out
Straight-line distance divided by a steady cruise speed of about 480 knots in still air. They leave out descent and wind, so treat them as rough.
Why planes stay close to airports
Twin-engine airliners fly under ETOPS rules, which keep every point of the route within an approved flying time of a suitable airport. Common approvals are 120 or 180 minutes, and some newer jets are approved for much longer. Airlines choose their alternates and check the weather there before departure.