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CDG → JFK

Paris to New York: distance, flight time and the route it really takes

Charles de Gaulle to John F. Kennedy is 5,834 km of great circle — 3,625 mi — and an estimated 7h 45m in the air. It crosses from Europe to North America.

Great circle
5,834 km
3,625 mi
Estimated in the air
7h 45m
block time
Furthest from equator
52.4°N
at 34% along
One lap of Earth
14.6%
of 40,075 km
The Paris to New York route drawn as a great circle arc on a globe

What the aircraft actually flies over

From Paris the path crosses France, then 3,442 km of open water, then Canada, then 438 km of open water, then the United States.

The furthest the great circle gets from the equator is 52.4°N, 34% of the way along.

Flying the line that looks straight on a Mercator map — one constant compass bearing — would cover 6,076 km. That is 242 km further, about 4% more, and roughly 18m of extra flying.

From

CDG

Charles de Gaulle

Paris, France · Europe

49.0°N, 2.6°E

Flights to Paris
To

JFK

John F. Kennedy

New York, United States · North America

40.6°N, 73.8°W

Flights to New York

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.

Why the shortest path is a curve →

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