FREE TOOL — FLIGHT TIME
How long is your flight, really? Published times include taxiing and buffers — and the return leg is rarely the same length. Below: typical scheduled times for the world’s busiest routes, and the simple math behind every flight time.
Pick any two airports in the world — get the distance, an estimated flight time and the time difference, worked out instantly.
🛫 Step 1 — Your route
🕐 Step 2 — When do you leave?
Departure time (local, at origin)
⚠️ Estimate only: based on great-circle distance and typical average speeds. Real flight times vary with winds, routing and airline schedules — westbound flights often take longer. Time differences use standard offsets; daylight saving can shift the local clock by an hour.
A flight leaves Dhaka at 10:00 in the morning and lands in Dubai at 13:30. Read at face value, that looks like a flight of three and a half hours — but the two cities keep different clocks, so the local times alone lie.
Step 1 — Convert the departure to UTC. Dhaka is UTC+6, so 10:00 in Dhaka is 04:00 UTC.
Step 2 — Convert the arrival to UTC. Dubai is UTC+4, so 13:30 in Dubai is 09:30 UTC.
Step 3 — Subtract. 09:30 minus 04:00 leaves 5 hours 30 minutes — the flight’s real length.
That is the whole trick: never subtract local clock times across time zones. Convert both ends to UTC first, and the true duration drops out.
| Route | Scheduled flight time | Distance (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| New York (JFK) → London (LHR) | ≈ 7 h 05 | 5,569 km (3,461 mi) |
| London (LHR) → Dubai (DXB) | ≈ 7 h 05 | 5,506 km (3,421 mi) |
| Dubai (DXB) → Singapore (SIN) | ≈ 7 h 40 | 5,878 km (3,653 mi) |
| Singapore (SIN) → Sydney (SYD) | ≈ 7 h 45 | 6,328 km (3,933 mi) |
| Los Angeles (LAX) → Tokyo (HND) | ≈ 12 h 05 | 8,861 km (5,507 mi) |
| New York (JFK) → Los Angeles (LAX) | ≈ 6 h 20 | 3,995 km (2,483 mi) |
| Frankfurt (FRA) → New York (JFK) | ≈ 8 h 45 | 6,222 km (3,867 mi) |
| Paris (CDG) → New York (JFK) | ≈ 8 h 25 | 5,865 km (3,645 mi) |
| Toronto (YYZ) → London (LHR) | ≈ 7 h 10 | 5,738 km (3,566 mi) |
| Delhi (DEL) → London (LHR) | ≈ 9 h 55 | 6,766 km (4,205 mi) |
| Mumbai (BOM) → Dubai (DXB) | ≈ 3 h 30 | 1,934 km (1,202 mi) |
| Hong Kong (HKG) → Singapore (SIN) | ≈ 4 h 00 | 2,578 km (1,602 mi) |
| Istanbul (IST) → New York (JFK) | ≈ 10 h 55 | 8,069 km (5,015 mi) |
| Amsterdam (AMS) → New York (JFK) | ≈ 8 h 15 | 5,878 km (3,653 mi) |
| Sydney (SYD) → Los Angeles (LAX) | ≈ 13 h 50 | 12,125 km (7,536 mi) |
| Chicago (ORD) → London (LHR) | ≈ 7 h 50 | 6,378 km (3,964 mi) |
| Bangkok (BKK) → London (LHR) | ≈ 12 h 45 | 9,628 km (5,984 mi) |
| Kuala Lumpur (KUL) → London (LHR) | ≈ 13 h 35 | 10,661 km (6,626 mi) |
| Dhaka (DAC) → Dubai (DXB) | ≈ 5 h 25 | 3,557 km (2,211 mi) |
| Dhaka (DAC) → London (LHR) | ≈ 11 h 25 | 8,058 km (5,008 mi) |
Typical nonstop scheduled times — airlines and seasons vary.
High up, rivers of air called jet streams circle the planet, blowing mainly from west to east. Fly east and they push from behind — a tailwind that can trim real time off a trip. Fly west on the way home and that same wind sits in your face the whole way.
Routing plays its part too. Air-traffic control may set a longer path, weather can force a detour, and busy hubs add holding time before landing. Put together, the same city pair can easily differ by 30 to 60 minutes between the way out and the way back.
No. Published flight time is block time — gate to gate. Boarding usually starts 30–45 minutes before departure and is not counted in the scheduled time, so build it into your own planning.
Mainly the wind. Jet streams blow from west to east, so eastbound flights get a push and westbound flights fight a headwind. Different routings and congestion around busy airports add smaller differences on top.
Block time runs from pushback at the departure gate to arrival at the destination gate, taxiing included. Flight time — air time — counts only wheels-up to wheels-down. The times printed on tickets are always block time.