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Flight Time Calculator

Estimate flight time from distance, cruise speed, wind and taxi time.

About Flight Time Calculator

The jet stream can add or remove an hour on a transatlantic crossing, which is why eastbound flights are consistently shorter than westbound ones. Taxi and climb time is largely fixed regardless of distance. Because taxi time is fixed, short flights spend a much larger share of their duration not cruising, which is what makes them inefficient per kilometre.

Formula

Flight Time

Flight time = route distance ÷ (cruise speed + wind) + taxi, climb and descent time

ground speed
Airspeed adjusted for the wind component
route factor
Airways and airspace restrictions make routes longer than the great circle

Worked example

With the default values below, Flight Time Calculator returns Total Flight Time of 6.842. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Great-circle distanceminimum 0 km
5,570 km
Cruise speedminimum 0.01 km/h
900 km/h
Tailwind, negative for headwindaccepts -300–300 km/h
60 km/h
Taxi, climb and descent timeminimum 0 min
45 min
Route factor above great circleaccepts 1–1.5 x
1.05 x

Results

Total Flight Time
6.842 h
Time at Cruise
6.092 h
Ground Speed
960.00 km/h
Actual Route Distance
5,848.5 km
Flight Time
6h 51m

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Flight Time
  3. 3Total Flight Time= 6.842 h
  4. 4Time at Cruise= 6.092 h
  5. 5Ground Speed= 960.00 km/h
  6. 6Actual Route Distance= 5,848.5 km
  7. 7Flight Time= 6h 51m

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Flight Time calculated?

Flight time = route distance ÷ (cruise speed + wind) + taxi, climb and descent time The jet stream can add or remove an hour on a transatlantic crossing, which is why eastbound flights are consistently shorter than westbound ones. Taxi and climb time is largely fixed regardless of distance.

Why does Flight Time matter?

Because taxi time is fixed, short flights spend a much larger share of their duration not cruising, which is what makes them inefficient per kilometre.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 5 inputs: Great-circle distance, Cruise speed, Tailwind, negative for headwind, Taxi, climb and descent time, Route factor above great circle. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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