In aviation, the flight length refers to the distance of a flight.[1] When it comes to the generic length factors of a flight it includes the speed, distance & stops of a flight.[citation needed] Commercial flights are often categorized into long-, medium- or short-haul by commercial airlines based on flight length, although there is no international standard definition and many airlines use air time or geographic boundaries instead.
David W. Wragg define short-haul routes as being shorter than 600–800 nmi (1,100–1,500 km), long-haul as being longer than 2,200–2,600 nmi (4,100–4,800 km), and medium-haul as being in-between.[2]
The related term flight duration is defined as to the amount of time a single flight (segment) is scheduled to take from pushing back at the departure gate to arriving at its destination gate.[3] It is formally defined by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) as "The total time from the moment an aeroplane first moves for the purpose of taking off until the moment it finally comes to rest at the end of the flight" called flight time, also referred to colloquially as "chocks to chocks" time.[4]
Flight duration is formally measured in hours & minutes as it is irrespective of geographic distance traveled. A route's flight duration can be affected by many things such as anticipated routings, weather, traffic, or taxiing times.[5] Scheduled durations for the same route and airline can also vary on what aircraft is used.
A flight's duration can also be described using the aviation term of "Flight Haul Type",[6] such as "Short Haul" or "Long Haul" that have multiple different definitions depending on originating sources. See the below table for some more prominent examples:
Lufthansa defines the Boeing 747-8 as a long-haul airliner.
Flight Haul Type terms are often used to describe flight length by aviation entities such as airlines, airports, and government authorities. The definitions vary as they are subjective for that entities' purposes and provide a specific message to their customers how they view a flight as being long or short. Some examples include:
Asia & Australia
Hong Kong International Airport considers destinations in North and South Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southwest Pacific and the Indian Subcontinent long-haul and all others are short-haul.[13]
Japan Air Lines defines routes to Europe and North America as long-haul and all other flights as short-haul.[14]
Qatar Airways defines all flights from Qatar to the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand as Ultra-long-haul, and all other flights as medium or long-haul.[15]
Virgin Australia defines domestic flights as within Australia, short-haul as those to South East Asia/Pacific and long-haul as those to Abu Dhabi or Los Angeles.[16]
Europe
The European Union defines any passenger flight between city pairs separated by a great circle distance less than 1,500 km to be short-haul, between 1,500 and 3,500 km as medium-haul, and all flights greater than 3,500 km to be long-haul routes.[17]
Eurocontrol defines "very short-haul" flights as being less than 500 km, short-haul flights being between 500 and 1,500 km, medium-haul flights being between 1,500 and 4,000 km (930 and 2,490 mi; 810 and 2,160 nmi), and long-haul flights as longer than that.[18]
The Association of European Airlines defined Long-haul as flights to Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australasia and medium-haul as flights to North Africa and Middle East.[19]
The now defunct airline Air Berlin defined short- and medium-haul as flights to Europe/North Africa and long-haul as those to the rest of the world.[20]
Air France defines short-haul as domestic, medium-haul as within Europe/North Africa and long haul as the rest of the world.[21]
North America
American Airlines defines short-/medium-haul flights as being less than 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km) and long-haul as either being more than 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km) or being the New York–Los Angeles and New York–San Francisco routes.[22]
United Airlines defines short-haul flights as being less than 700 mi (610 nmi; 1,100 km)[23] and long-haul flights as being greater than 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km).[24]
Aircraft category definitions
Flight Haul Type terms are sometimes used when referring to commercial aircraft. Some commercial carriers choose to refer to their aircraft using flight haul type terms, for example:
While they are capable of flying further, long-haul capable wide-bodies are often used on shorter trips. In 2017 - 40% of A350 routes were shorter than 2,000 nmi (2,300 mi; 3,700 km), 50% of A380 flights fell within 2,000–4,000 nmi (2,300–4,600 mi; 3,700–7,400 km), 70% of 777-200ER routes were shorter than 4,000 nmi (4,600 mi; 7,400 km), 80% of 787-9s routes were shorter than 5,000 nmi (5,800 mi; 9,300 km), 70% of 777-200LRs flights were shorter than 6,000 nmi (6,900 mi; 11,000 km).[28]
The Westray to Papa Westray flight in Orkney, operated by Loganair, is the shortest commercial flight in the world over 2.8 km (1.7 mi) in two minutes scheduled flight time including taxiing.
Airline routes between San Francisco and Tokyo following the most direct great circle (top) westward, and following a longer-distance jet stream route (bottom) when heading eastward
The absolute distance between two points is the great-circle distance, which is always the shortest geographical route. In the example (right), the aircraft travelling westward from North America to Japan is following a great-circle route extending northward towards the Arctic region. The apparent curve of the route is a result of distortion when plotted onto a conventional map projection and makes the route appear to be longer than it really is. Stretching a string between North America and Japan on a globe will demonstrate why this really is the shortest route despite appearances.
The actual flight length is the length of the track flown across the ground in practice, which is usually longer than the ideal great-circle and is influenced by a number of factors such as the need to avoid bad weather, wind direction and speed, fuel economy, navigational restrictions and other requirements. In the example, easterly flights from Japan to North America are shown taking a longer, more southerly, route than the shorter great-circle; this is to take advantage of the favourable jet stream, a fast, high-altitude tail-wind, that assists the aircraft along its ground track saving more time and fuel than the geographically shortest route.
Flight Length versus Flight Duration example
Even with the same length, a route's flight duration can be affected by anticipated routings, seasonal weather, traffic, taxiing time, or equipment capabilities as seen in this example:
On the Luxembourg to Bucharest route operated by LuxAir, the scheduled flight length remains constant while the flight duration varies depending on aircraft used:
On Thursday mornings, LuxAir operates a DHC-8 Turboprop with a scheduled duration of approximately 3 hours.[35][36]
While on Saturday mornings, LuxAir operates a Embraer 190 Jet Airliner, which reduces the scheduled duration of the flight down to approximately 2 hours 20 minutes.[35][37]
