- Great circle
- 8,690 km
- 5,400 mi
- Estimated in the air
- 11h 18m
- block time
- Furthest from equator
- 50.0°N
- at 0% along
- One lap of Earth
- 21.7%
- of 40,075 km
What the aircraft actually flies over
From Frankfurt the path crosses Germany, then Italy, then 978 km of open water, then Libya, then Chad, then the Central African Republic, then the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then Zambia, then Zimbabwe, then Botswana, then South Africa.
The furthest the great circle gets from the equator is 50.0°N, 0% of the way along.
Holding a single compass bearing the whole way would cover almost exactly the same ground, so on this route the flat map and the globe agree.
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.
Flown this one?
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