Explain travel times and distances on flight
A flight from Los Angeles to ABQ is about 2 hours but is ~670.2 miles
A flight from San Jose to Chicago is 4 hours but is ~1859.0 miles
Can anyone explain why the travel time from San Jose to Chicago is not longer and closer to 5.75 hours?
If the distance increase by 2, shouldn't the time increase by a factor of 2 as well?
Best Answer
A lot of the time in travel is the initial takeoff and climbing to altitude, as well as the descent, queueing and slowdown at the end.
During this time you're not actually travelling that far, but it uses up time.
Every flight has this component, and let's say for argument's sake it takes 20 minutes at the start and 20 minutes at the end.
Then the rest of the time, you're flying at max cruising speed.
As a result, you're spending a greater percentage of your travel time at higher speeds, and can get further as a result.
In addition, prevailing winds and flying with the spin of the earth makes a difference as well.
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The extent of space between two objects or places; an intervening space.How many miles is 3 hours on a plane?
Maybe this last point of view is the most useful to solve your problem: in 3 hours time, the plane will have traveled 350 miles, three times.How do you calculate air travel time?
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Answer 2
Three are two main factors for the difference between the two flights you've listed.
The first is the overhead of take-off, climb, decent and landing. These will be roughly equivalent for all flights, so are basically a fixed overhead.
For the two flights you've listed, the times you've given are those published by the airline and thus include the time from gate-to-gate, including taxi/etc.
Picking a LAX-ABQ at random, UA6474, FlightAware shows that the average flight time is actually around 1 hour 25 minutes, not 2 hours as you've stated. The 2 hours includes taxi time, and some additional buffer the airlines normally add in.
Picking a SJC-ORD at random, AA1008, FlightAware shows that the average flight time is actually around 3 hour 45 minutes, not 4 hours as you've stated. Again, the 4 hours includes taxi time.
Even then, that's ignoring the overhead of take-off/climb/decent/landing, which only occurs once per flight, and isn't related to the distance.
The second major factor is the type of plane, and thus the maximum speed flown. LAX-ABQ would normally be flown by a "regional" jet - a smaller, and less powerful plane often with a lower cruise speed. SJC-ORD would be flown by a "narrow-body" (or occasionally for other similar length flights a "wide-body") jet, which would normally have a higher cruise speed.
This will vary depending on the exact jets flown, but could be as much as 10% of more for the standard cruise speed.
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