- Great circle
- 13,988 km
- 8,692 mi
- Estimated in the air
- 17h 53m
- block time
- Furthest from equator
- 70.9°N
- at 60% along
- One lap of Earth
- 34.9%
- of 40,075 km
What the aircraft actually flies over
From Bangalore the path crosses India, then Nepal, then China, then Mongolia, then Russia, then 1,434 km of open water, then the United States, then 2,518 km of open water, then the United States.
The great circle reaches 70.9°N, inside the Arctic circle — which is why the route looks like a detour over the top of the world on a flat map, and like the obvious line on a globe.
Flying the line that looks straight on a Mercator map — one constant compass bearing — would cover 16,115 km. That is 2,127 km further, about 15% more, and roughly 2h 39m of extra flying.
BLR
Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru
Bangalore, India · Asia
13.2°N, 77.7°E
SFO
San Francisco
San Francisco, United States · North America
37.6°N, 122.4°W
Flights to San Francisco →How these numbers are worked out
The distance is the great circle between the two airports’ real coordinates — the shortest path over a sphere, and the measure airlines and loyalty programmes use. It is computed, not looked up from a table of published routes.
The time is an estimate derived from that distance, using the same arithmetic Orbit uses when you log a flight without timestamps: a typical airliner block speed of 500 mph plus thirty minutes for taxi, climb and descent. Real schedules run longer or shorter depending on winds, air traffic control routing and how far the gate is from the runway. Aircraft also do not fly perfect great circles — jet streams, airspace closures and ETOPS limits all bend the path, usually by a few percent.
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