Why are the flight paths curved?

Each line is a great circle — the shortest path between two points on a sphere, and close to what long-haul flights actually fly. On a flat map the shortest path bends toward the pole, which is why London to Los Angeles arcs up over Greenland instead of running straight across the Atlantic.

How do I map two separate trips on one map?

Start a new route, or separate them with a comma when pasting: CDG-HND, LAX-MEX-GRU draws two trips with no line between Tokyo and Los Angeles. A dash chains stops; a comma, semicolon or new line starts another trip.

Yes. The whole map lives in the page address — the route, the view and the labels — so copying the link shares exactly what you see. Nothing is saved on a server; the link is the map.

Is it free, and is my route stored anywhere?

It's free, with no account. The map is drawn and the image is made in your browser, and nothing you enter is stored. Up to 25 airports per map; for every flight you've ever taken, the Orbit app keeps the full log.

Which airports can I use?

Any of 8,801 airports with an IATA code. Search by the three-letter IATA code, the four-letter ICAO code, the city or the airport's name.

Free tools

Flight route map generator: make a map of your flights

Add the airports of a trip in order and watch it draw as great-circle arcs — the paths planes actually fly — on a flat map or a globe. Download it for a post or a story, or share the link.

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PNG, made in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Your route

Stop 1
Stop 2
Next stop

Distance: 6,344 km; 3,942 mi
Flying time: 8h 23m; estimated
Around the Earth: 0.16×; the equator
Flights: 1
Airports: 2
Countries: 2
Continents: 2

Every flight on this map, with its great-circle distance
Flight	Distance	Time	Route page
ORD → LHRChicago to London	6,344 km	8h 23m	Route guide

ORD → LHR is 6,344 km of flying across 2 countries — about 8h 23m in the air.

Try a famous trip

Each one opens the generator with the route already drawn.

How the map is drawn

Why flight paths curve on a map

Every line is a great circle: the shortest path between two airports over the surface of the Earth. Long-haul flights follow it closely, which is why London to Los Angeles heads north over Greenland rather than straight west across the Atlantic.

On a flat map that shortest path bends toward the nearer pole. The straight line you might draw instead — a constant compass bearing — is longer, sometimes by hundreds of kilometres. The flight distance calculator shows the difference for any pair.

The flat map uses the Equal Earth projection, which keeps every country its true size, and turns to keep a trip across the Pacific in one piece. The globe is an orthographic view aimed at the middle of your route.

Distances are great-circle kilometres from airport coordinates; flying times are estimates at 500 mph plus 30 minutes for take-off and landing. For the emissions of a single flight, try the flight carbon calculator; to shade the countries you’ve been to, the countries visited map.

Route maps

Questions about mapping your flights

Add each airport you flew through, in order, with the stop pickers — or paste the whole trip as codes, like OTP-LHR-JFK-LAX. The map draws as you go. Choose a flat map or a globe, turn the airport codes and city names on or off, then download it as a square, landscape or story-sized image.

One trip is a map. Every flight is a story.

Orbit keeps your whole flight history — every route, the distance, the hours, the countries and continents — on a globe you can spin. Offline, free to start.

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