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Longer flight times to Europe?

Posted by (Beaverton, Oregon, USA) on

I was watching a Seattle to Paris flight track today and it looks like perhaps the route they were taking was going to make the flight about 2+ hours longer. The flight left close to on-time but has been showing an arrival 147 minutes late all day. The track that the flight took went across southern Canada and left the US over Massachusetts. That's where the tracking ends but it projects the flight coming into France via Spain, apparently well away from the worst of the ash cloud.

Since the normal route of this flight would be through northern Canada, Greenland and into France from the north, I'm guessing that maybe the long 10 hour flight to Europe from the US west coast may be an even longer 12+ hour flight for awhile. I leave the 29th on this flight. That's why I was watching it.

Posted by
72 posts

Forgot to add: at least it's flying!

Posted by
32353 posts

Eric,

I suspect that as the flights get back to normal, flights will revert to their previous routes (and travel times).

Transatlantic flights follow specific tracks (somewhat like "highways in the sky") so as the ash clears, those will be used again. Some may be restricted until the ash clears completely, depending on whether they fall into the red, yellow or green areas that were defined by the authorities.

At this point, I'll gladly sit in the "flying bus" for another two hours if it gets me to Europe.

Posted by
5850 posts

Eric, it probably depends. I'm scheduled to fly to London on Saturday (assuming the volcano cooperates). I checked the status for the flight I am scheduled to take. It departed on time this morning and arrived in London 5 minutes early. This was from the east coast, so perhaps the route did not have to be varied.

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