Flight Time Calculator
Estimate flight duration between airports, including airborne time, gate-to-gate time, connections, distance and your local arrival time.
Your estimated gate-to-gate duration
Choose a departure and arrival airport, then select Calculate Flight Time to see airborne time, gate-to-gate duration, distance and your local arrival.
Popular flight-time examples
Direct-flight estimates generated with this calculator's own model and default settings. Select a route to load it above.
How it works
Airborne time vs gate-to-gate time
Airborne time is the flying portion only — wheels-up to wheels-down, covering climb, cruise and descent. Gate-to-gate time is what the airline publishes: pushback from the departure stand to arriving on stand at the destination, so it also includes taxiing at both ends. Gate-to-gate is normally 20–30 minutes longer, and it is the number to plan your day around.
Direct vs connecting flights
A connection adds a second (or third) climb, descent and taxi cycle, plus the layover itself, and the routing via a hub is longer than the direct great circle. That is why a one-stop itinerary can add four or five hours to a journey that only looks an hour longer in the air. Use total journey time, not gate-to-gate, when booking airport transfers, trains or hotel check-in at the far end. Once you know the total, the Holiday Budget Planner helps you price the transfers and airport parking that go with it.
Time zones and arrival dates
Local arrival can fall on the following day — or occasionally two calendar days later — because of time-zone offsets and the International Date Line. A late-evening departure from London to Sydney typically lands two calendar days after departure in local terms, while a westbound Pacific crossing can arrive "before" it left. Cross-check the result with the Time Zone Converter and plan your recovery with the Jet Lag Calculator.
Why outbound and return flights can differ
Mid-latitude winds blow broadly west to east, so an eastbound aircraft gains a tailwind while the westbound return fights a headwind. On the North Atlantic that routinely means 45–90 minutes' difference between the two legs of the same route. Routing changes — oceanic tracks, overflight restrictions and ATC vectoring — add further asymmetry.
Methodology and assumptions
- Great-circle distance. The shortest path over the earth's surface between the two airports, computed with the Haversine formula on a spherical earth of radius 6,371 km.
- Routing allowance. Real airways, oceanic tracks and ATC vectoring are never perfectly direct, so 4–8% is added to the great-circle distance — proportionally more on short sectors, where departure and arrival procedures dominate.
- Climb and descent. A fixed allowance of roughly 24–34 minutes per sector, scaling with sector length, covers climb to cruise altitude plus descent and approach.
- Taxi time. 12 minutes at each end of every sector by default, editable under Advanced options.
- Cruise speed. 885 km/h true airspeed by default, applied to the cruise phase only — not to climb, descent or taxi. That is why short hops show a far lower average speed than long-haul routes.
- Wind adjustment. A seasonal-average term of up to ±45 km/h is applied to cruise, scaled by the east–west component of the route and weighted towards the mid-latitude jet-stream band around 42°.
- Connections. Each stop adds a 7.5% dogleg allowance to the distance, an extra climb, descent and taxi cycle, and the layover you specify (90 minutes per stop by default).
- Time zones. Departure and arrival times are converted using IANA time-zone data through the browser's
IntlAPI, so daylight saving transitions and date-line crossings are handled automatically. - Limitations. The model does not know the aircraft type, the airline's cost index, payload, day-of-flight weather, slot delays or holding. It also does not model schedule padding, which is why an airline's published duration is often longer.
Sources. Airport coordinates and IATA codes are derived from the public-domain OurAirports dataset; time-zone behaviour comes from the IANA Time Zone Database via the browser's Intl implementation. Passenger-rights context: UK Civil Aviation Authority. Results are estimates — actual airline schedules vary by carrier, aircraft, season and air-traffic conditions, and should not be used as the sole basis for booking decisions.
Last reviewed: August 2026. The CO₂ estimate previously shown here has been removed pending an authoritative, citable emissions methodology.
Related Calcaroo travel tools
Once you know how long you will be travelling, work out what to carry with the Packing Weight Calculator, set a daily allowance with the Holiday Spending Money Calculator, and if part of your trip is by road, see the guide to better journey planning.
Frequently asked
How accurate is the flight-time calculator?
It is an estimate, not a schedule. The model uses the great-circle distance between the two airports, a routing allowance, fixed climb and descent time, taxi time and a seasonal wind adjustment. For most commercial routes it lands within roughly 10–15% of the published schedule. Real flights vary with the aircraft type, the airline's cruise policy, air-traffic routing, holding and weather on the day, so always check the airline's own timetable before booking onward travel.
Does flight time include taxiing?
The airborne figure does not; the gate-to-gate figure does. Taxi time is the period between leaving the stand and lifting off, and between landing and reaching the arrival stand. The calculator adds a taxi allowance at both ends of every sector — twelve minutes each by default, which you can change under Advanced options. At very large or congested hubs, taxi-out alone can exceed twenty minutes.
What is the difference between airborne and gate-to-gate time?
Airborne time is the flying portion only: wheels-up to wheels-down, covering climb, cruise and descent. Gate-to-gate time is what airlines publish: pushback at the departure stand to arriving on the stand at the destination, so it also includes taxiing at both ends. Gate-to-gate is normally twenty to thirty minutes longer than airborne time, and it is the figure to use when planning your day.
Why are eastbound flights sometimes faster?
Mid-latitude winds, including the jet stream, generally blow from west to east. An eastbound aircraft rides that tailwind and an westbound one fights it as a headwind. On the North Atlantic the difference is commonly forty-five to ninety minutes between the outbound and return legs of the same route. The calculator applies a seasonal-average wind term based on latitude and the east–west component of the route.
How are connecting flights and layovers calculated?
Choosing one or two stops adds a small dogleg allowance to the distance, because a routing via a hub is longer than flying direct. Each additional sector also carries its own climb, descent and taxi time. Layover time is then added between sectors — ninety minutes per stop by default, adjustable under Advanced options. The total journey time shown is the sum of all sectors plus every layover.
How is the local arrival time calculated?
The departure date and time you enter are treated as local wall-clock time at the departure airport and converted to a precise instant using that airport's IANA time zone. The total journey time is added to that instant, and the result is converted back into local time at the arrival airport using its own time zone rules. That handles offset differences, date rollovers and International Date Line crossings automatically.
Does the calculator account for daylight saving time?
Yes. Both airports are handled through IANA time-zone data via the browser's Intl API, which knows when each region changes its clocks. If your flight departs before a clock change and arrives after it — or crosses between a country that observes daylight saving and one that does not — the arrival time shown already reflects the correct local clock at the destination.
Why can the airline's scheduled duration be longer?
Airlines add schedule padding: extra minutes built into the timetable to absorb congestion, holding, slot delays and seasonal headwinds, which protects their on-time performance figures. Padding of fifteen to thirty minutes is normal, and larger on routes into busy hubs. That is a common reason a flight lands early. Treat this calculator's figure as the realistic flying time and the airline's as the padded promise.
Can I calculate an overnight flight's arrival date?
Yes. Enter the departure date and local departure time, and the results panel shows the full local arrival date as well as the time. When the arrival falls on a later calendar day, a clear note says whether it arrives the following day or two calendar days after departure. That matters most on eastbound long-haul routes, where a late-evening departure routinely lands two days later in local terms.
Are the CO₂ figures exact?
No — the calculator no longer shows a CO₂ estimate. A credible per-passenger figure depends on the aircraft type, load factor, cabin class and radiative forcing assumptions, none of which this tool knows. For a properly sourced figure, use the UK Government greenhouse gas conversion factors or the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator, both of which publish their methodology in full.
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