- Great circle
- 5,650 km
- 3,511 mi
- Estimated in the air
- 7h 31m
- block time
- Furthest from equator
- 40.5°N
- at 4% along
- One lap of Earth
- 14.1%
- of 40,075 km
What the aircraft actually flies over
From Madrid the path crosses Spain, then 664 km of open water, then Italy, then 523 km of open water, then Greece, then Syria, then Iraq, then Kuwait, then 819 km of open water.
The furthest the great circle gets from the equator is 40.5°N, 4% of the way along.
Flying the line that looks straight on a Mercator map — one constant compass bearing — would cover 5,731 km. That is 81 km further, about 1% more, and roughly 6m 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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