How long does it take an average commercial airliner to reach altitude after takeoff?

Question

I have been watching takeoff videos on YouTube from the passenger's window view, and I noticed that some planes seem to deadbeat after climbing about 1 minute. They seem to have difficulty reaching any height and they look like they are moving more horizontally than vertically. Others, like the 737 and the 757 go up effortlessly and with their nose pitched very high. Also, I noticed that some models of aircraft don't even get close to reaching the clouds after more than 5 minutes of climb! How high up are these seemingly unreachable clouds?

Answer 1

It depends on the weight of the aircraft (a 737 doing its last short hop of the day will be at a smaller percentage of its Max Gross Weight than a 747 flying half way around the world).

It also depends on the departure they take, sometimes there is an altitude restiction because of higher traffic on departure. Also noise abatement procedures could reduce climb (since they throttle back).

It also depends on the weather. A cold clear winter day at sea level will produce a noticeably better performance than taking off from a place like Denver on a hot, humid day.

Airbus airliners are notoriously gutless, the A340 espectially. I was on one and I though we were just taxiing faster, not taking off!

Cloud bases can range from a few huundred feet to 20 or 30000 feet.

Answer 2

Aircraft use a noise abatement procedure, so after an initial steep climb they have to throttle back until they reach a moderate altitude where they can turn on the power again. For bizjets I think that's 3,000 feet.

A319 takes 23 minutes to 37,000 feet, Boeing claim the 737-800 is 3.2 minutes faster to 35,000 feet than the A320.

There has been some suggestion that Boeing don't compare like to like though, I can't be bothered to do enough research right now, but I'd expect the much newer Boeing to perform better.

Answer 3

When an airliner is able to climb unrestricted, it can take 20 to 30 minutes to reach a typical cruise altitude for trips greater than 300nm.

Your observations do not account for the airliner being restricted in their climb by Air Traffic Control, so they may have to periodically level-off and stay below the speed limit below 10,000 feet. ATC can also restrict the speed of the airliner. The speed limit below 10,000 feet is 250 knots. In other words, it's not a free-for-all. If an airliner were unrestricted in the climb, and let's say the cruising altitude was 30,000 feet to 40,000 feet, the airliner would likely climb and gradually increase speed to 250 knots to 10,000 feet, accelerate to maybe 270 knots and join up with a mach speed somewhat below the cruise speed until reaching cruise altitude. The increases in speed will reduce the rate of climb. A high take-off weight will also reduce rate of climb.

Some airports have extreme noise abatement policies, like Orange County (SNA), in which case a high initial attitude is required.

Airliners have various thrust to weight ratios as well.

The base of the clouds could be at any altitude.

Answer 4

10 minutes

Answer 5

it takes about 30 minutes to reach 30,000-35,000 feet. One reason is that the planes take that long to burn off fuel as to lessen the weight of the aircraft. Another factor is atmospheric conditions.

Answer 6

Isn't that about 40 tons of metal trying to roll down the runway getting enough speed to get off the ground ...........40 tons I think

Answer 7

oh about 40 min

Answer 8

planes don't all fly at the same altitude

Answer 9

commercial airliner go at flying altitude in 15min