Flight Time Between Cities: Distances and Times for 40+ Routes

By Lokesh RathoreUpdated 4 Jul 2026 · 7 min read

Most people who ask for the flight time between two cities want one thing: a number they can trust, without opening a booking site that buries it under fares. This page is built around that. Below is a reference table of more than forty of the busiest city pairs in the world and out of India, each with its straight-line distance and an estimated nonstop flight time. Every figure was worked out with the same engine that powers the calculator on this site, so you can look up a common route here or type your own into the tool for anything not listed.

How these numbers are worked out

The distance in each row is the great-circle distance, the shortest path over the curve of the Earth between the two airports. The time takes that distance, divides it by a cruising ground speed of about 800 kilometres an hour (an average that already folds in the slower climb and descent), and adds thirty minutes for taxiing, the runway queue and the approach. It is an estimate of the time in the air plus a little ground time, not a copy of any one airline's timetable. Real schedules run a touch longer, usually within about fifteen minutes of these figures on short routes and up to an hour on the long ones, because of routing, air-traffic holds and wind. If you want the full working behind the model, it is set out in how flight time is calculated.

One thing the table cannot show in a single number: the two directions of the same route are rarely identical. A flight going east usually rides the jet stream and lands sooner than the same route flown west against it, which is the whole story behind why the return flight is often faster. Read each figure as a typical time for the pair, then expect the eastbound leg to come in a little under it and the westbound leg a little over.

A shortcut for estimating in your head

Once you know the distance, you barely need a tool. Because a jet averages close to 800 kilometres an hour, every 800 kilometres on the map is roughly one hour in the air, and you add about half an hour on top for the ground time at each end. So a 2,400 kilometre trip works out at about three hours plus a bit, and a 6,400 kilometre one at around eight and a half. It will never be exact, but it lands you within striking distance of the real figure, which is often all you need when you are weighing two options or telling someone at home roughly when to expect you. For anything you actually have to plan around, the table below and the calculator do the arithmetic properly, including the part people most often get wrong, which is the time zone waiting at the far end.

Flight times between cities in India

These are the domestic routes people search most. Nothing here crosses a meaningful time zone, so the arrival clock reads much as you would expect, and the whole trip is over before any jet lag can set in.

Flight times from India to the Gulf

The Gulf is the single busiest international corridor out of India, carrying millions of workers and families a year. Everything here is a short hop of three to four hours, and the clocks are close enough that the day barely shifts. For a fuller look at this corridor, see the Kerala to Gulf flight time guide.

Flight times from India to South and Southeast Asia

Close neighbours like Kathmandu and Colombo are shorter than some domestic flights, while the Southeast Asian hubs sit in a comfortable four to six hour band that makes them easy long-weekend territory.

Flight times from India to East Asia and Europe

This is where the day starts to bend. East Asia is a five to eight hour flight with the clock jumping forward, while Europe is an eight to ten hour haul with the clock falling back, so a morning departure to London still lands you there in the afternoon.

Flight times from India to the Americas and Australia

The giants. These are the routes that fill a full working day in the air, and where a nonstop really earns its premium over a one-stop that can add five or six hours through a hub. Mumbai to Newark, at over 12,500 km, is about the longest nonstop currently flown from India; you can see the full picture, and how a recent airspace closure reshaped it, in the ranking of longest nonstop flights from India.

The world's busiest and longest long-haul routes

Finally, the marquee international pairs that turn up in every ranking. London to New York is the busiest long-haul route on the planet; Singapore to New York is currently the longest scheduled flight anywhere, close to a full day in the seat.

When a city has more than one airport

Some cities spread their flights across several airports, and people usually search by city name rather than by airport code. London has Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted; New York has JFK, Newark and LaGuardia; Tokyo has Haneda and Narita. The flight time barely changes between them, because the airports sit only a few kilometres apart, so London to New York is roughly the same whether you land at JFK or Newark. What does change is how far you then are from where you are actually headed, so it is worth checking which airport your ticket uses before you sort out the taxi at the other end. In the calculator you can pick the exact airport by its code to be sure.

Look up any pair yourself

The table covers the routes people ask about most, but the tool covers every airport in the database, big hub or small regional strip. Put your two cities or their codes into the flight time calculator and you get the distance, the estimated time and the local time you would land, worked out on the spot. If you would rather think in broad distance bands than exact pairs, the companion guide on how long a flight takes sorts the whole world into four simple tiers.