- Great circle
- 9,708 km
- 6,032 mi
- Estimated in the air
- 12h 34m
- block time
- Furthest from equator
- 68.7°N
- at 41% along
- One lap of Earth
- 24.2%
- of 40,075 km
What the aircraft actually flies over
From Paris the path crosses France, then Belgium, then Netherlands, then Sweden, then Finland, then Russia, then China, then Russia, then 704 km of open water, then Japan.
The great circle reaches 68.7°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 11,320 km. That is 1,613 km further, about 17% more, and roughly 2h 00m of extra flying.
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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