On translantic flights at what altitude are most flights flying at eastward and why?

Answer 1

I'll try to answer this without getting everyone too lost in aviation jargon.

There is no standard altitude for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It is all dependent on the type of aircraft with other varying factors built in, (i.e. fuel/passenger load, weather, winds aloft).

Aircraft fly along a predetermined route over the ocean called a Nort Atlantic Track, called NATs. These routes are changed daily to make the best use of weather conditions. Eastbound routes are depicted with an alphanumeric character, S-Z and include flight levels 320-400.

Your aircraft will more than likely increase it's altitude duing the course of it's flight. Take for example; A Boeing 777-200 (I'll refer to it in atc terms as a B772),departing from Chicago O'Hare to London Heathrow. Because of the extraordinary weight at take-off, the B772 might only be able to climb to FL330, (33,000ft at standard atmospheric pressure setting of 29.92 inches of mercury). As the aircraft flies along, it will obviously burn off fuel and become lighter, enabling it to climb to a higher altitude. The final cruising altitude of your flight might be FL400. Stereotypically, the higher you are, the more fuel efficient the aircraft is.

Answer 2

Long over water flights are not separated not by radar. ATC radar extends out about 200 miles, at which point manual separation is used. Manual separation use time, distance, and altitude to separate aircraft. The separation standards are much larger than 3/5 mile separation standards for radar. The primary standard separation for over water flights is the use of altitude.

Answer 3

Well, most of the time they are flying at FLT level 350 (35,000).But sometimes they are flying lower.The best altitude is above 29.000 feet. At that altitude there is not a lot of air resistance. It all depends how the winds are.

Answer 4

Around 36,000 ft

Answer 5

12,000m or 36,000 feet. This is a standard.

It used to 10,000m or 30,000 feet.

Answer 6

35,000 ft. Standard.

Answer 7

38,000-40,000ft