Flight-duration differences between flights and return flights?

Question

If you fly from London to New York will the duration of the flight be longer, shorter or the same as when you travel from New York to London..If there is a difference how is it explained?What about other geographical areas?
(After alot of thinking I concluded that earth's rotation should not be the reason because the airplane has the speed of the earth already and therefore earth could be taken as a system of inertia....but then again I might be wrong).Something about the wind currents maybe?

Please don't guess and answer only if you are confident that you know the correct answer.

Answer 1

wind willl be the main difference other than that its a mileage thing ,they may take a different route and then you also have the time zone changes but the actual times will be close to the same

Answer 2

Flight Durations

Answer 3

There are several reasons. The aircraft may be experiencing a 'head wind' which slows the aircrafts ground speed, taking longer opposed to a 'tail wind', which increases the ground speed. Aircraft especially when flying through some of the most busiest airspace in the world (and to the busiest airports for the matter) can expect to be held at a certain point (the aircraft will typically fly a racetrack pattern, untill they are told to continue). Some phases of the flight can be restricted such as speed restrictions on some points on their flight plan. Alternatively, air traffic controllers can give the aircraft a 'no restriction' making the flight progress slightly quicker. Also, if the pilots are in a hurry they can decide to change some things such as speed or delay a descent, anything such as this can make progress quicker (its can simply be about the captains preference). Airline policies may effect flight duration, but not to a huge degree

Answer 4

It's just the prevailing winds. There is ALWAYS, absolutely ALWAYS, a tail wind heading back to the UK. The highest ground speed I have seen was over 700mph just off southern Greenland on a Virgin Atlantic flight from SFO to LHR.

On the outward trips they often have to take an out of the way route to avoid the headwind, the most obvious case of that was a LHR to SFO flight, instead of crossing back into US airspace somewhere near Montanna we flew at high level to Seattle then dropped down to 28,000 feet and flew down the coast. It all depends on where the jetstreams are today.

Take a look at the Intellicast jetstream forecast for the US today, flights out of SFO today will be aiming to pick up those 140mph tail winds near Chicago, flights from JFK will be headin up the New England coast to get into the thick of it around Newfoundland.

Answer 5

It will be different depending on the season.
when you flight during winter time, most of the time it will have head wind going from NY to london, and during summer time, most of the time will have tail wind. even though the distance is the same, but the wind make big difference in speed of an air craft. And the amount of the gas/oil an air plane will use. And one last point.... you are right with the rotation of the earth.
For your references, I do travel a lot to Asia from NY, and the travelling time going and back is about 1 hr different. Hope this will solve your question.

Answer 6

If you are flying with the prevailing winds your ground speed would be faster.
If you were flying against the wind your ground speed would be slower.
Your airspeed does not reflect your true speed or distance covered over the ground in a period of time.
The rotation of the earth has little to do with it other than causing effects in the wind.

Answer 7

I have not flown from to London But, I have flown from JFK to LAX/SFO many times and the eastbound trip is usually an hour or so faster due to the tail wind created by the jet stream which on turn is created by the earths rotation.

Answer 8

It has a lot to do with winds (ATC routing can also affect times.) You can obtain a flight time estimate of any worldwide airports using the standard "Boeing Winds" which are an average wind speed globally during the various seasons at: http://www.jets.com/ then click on "obtain an estimate"

Answer 9

It depends on altitude and the speed of the head wind or tail wind you may be flying into or flying with.

Answer 10

It has always been explained to me that when you travel East you are traveling with the natural flow of the earth.(The earth rotates and creates winds.) If you are traveling East from LAX and going to London you should get there in around 9.5 hrs. maybe 9 hrs. Coming back is 10.5 to 11 hrs.
Going to Tokyo from LAX was about 10 hrs. Coming back was 8.5 hrs. I assume this is because you are taveling against the wind(or earths rotational pull)
I hope this helps

Answer 11

Try Tail wind