Which direction is faster to fly?

So which way do planes fly the fastest? In general, but not always, aircraft travel faster travelling from west to east. Indeed, on a scheduled flight from New York to Malaga, for example, flight time can be reduced by almost 20% compared to the opposite route, from 8.5 hours to 7 hours.



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So which way do planes fly the fastest? In general, but not always, aircraft travel faster travelling from west to east. Indeed, on a scheduled flight from New York to Malaga, for example, flight time can be reduced by almost 20% compared to the opposite route, from 8.5 hours to 7 hours.

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Jet streams are, at their most basic, high-altitude air currents caused by atmospheric heating and the inertia of the earth's rotation—and they're the reason why flights from west to east are faster than the same route traversed in the opposite direction.

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It's been established that the Pacific Ocean is big ... really big. And with greater distances come greater costs since the plane needs more fuel. Executive Flyers writes that while you could just charge passengers more to fly that distance, this may lead to lots of unhappy customers and airlines losing out on sales.

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When you travel west, the Sun gets lower and lower in the sky. It is as though you are seeing the Sun as it would be at an earlier time in the day. We can make this more precise by saying that as you travel East you will gain time, and as you travel west you will lose time.

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What is the longest flight in the world by distance? The longest flight in the world by distance is New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) on Singapore Airlines clocking in at 9,537 miles. What plane can fly the farthest in the world?

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It's faster to fly east (usually) A non-transatlantic example might be a flight between Amsterdam and Singapore. A flight east will take nearly 13 hours, while flying west towards Europe will take nearly 15 hours.

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Sleep Foundation notes that jet lag happens when we travel across three or more time zones. And, there's bad news for anyone traveling from the U.S. to Europe: jet lag is worse when you travel east than it is when you travel west. Why is this?

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Jet Streams
Due to Earth's rotation, these air currents often move from West to East. If an airplane is flying in the same direction as a jet stream, it may save time and fuel, but if it is flying against a jet stream, it will encounter extreme turbulence and might be damaged.

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Despite what many people believe, the answer actually has nothing to do with safety. The real answer is because going north may actually provide a shorter route. This is called Great Circle Navigation. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest route between two locations may appear much longer on a flat map.

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Theoretically it is possible but even a supersonic jet would be hindered by factors such as speed restrictions and in-flight refuelling.

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The simple answer is yes, pilots do, and are allowed to sleep during flight but there are strict rules controlling this practice. Pilots would only normally sleep on long haul flights, although sleep on short haul flights is permitted to avoid the effects of fatigue.

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Planes travel along the shortest route in 3-dimensional space. This route is called a geodesic or great circle. While map projections distort these routes confusing passengers, the great circle path is the shortest path between two far locations. This is why pilots fly polar routes saving time and distance.

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Most people find that jet lag is worse when traveling east than it is when traveling west. View Source . Jet lag differs based on the direction of travel because it's generally easier to delay your internal clock than advance it. Jet lag does not occur on north-south flights that do not cross multiple time zones.

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At the equator, the time zones are a little over 1,000 miles (1,609 km) apart, so to cross one every hour, your plane would have to fly at over 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 kph). If you started flying at 12:00 noon, at 1:00 p.m. (according to your watch) you would cross a time zone, making it 12:00 noon again.

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