Tools
Flight distance calculator
Choose two airports to get the great-circle distance in kilometres, miles and nautical miles, the initial heading, and the route drawn on a chart.
- Calculated from airport coordinates
- km · mi · nm
- Haversine formula
- Free to use, no account needed
Distance calculator
Great-circle
Pick two airports to measure
The distance, heading and route chart appear here. Try LHE to DXB, or LHR to JFK.
Distance isn’t the same as flight time
Questions
What is great-circle distance?
The shortest path between two points on the surface of a sphere. It’s why a flight from Islamabad to London heads north-west over Central Asia rather than following a straight line on a flat map.
Is this the distance my flight will actually fly?
No. It’s the shortest possible distance. Real flights follow air routes, avoid closed airspace and adjust for winds, so they usually fly a few percent further. Airlines’ frequent-flyer schemes often use great-circle distance, though.
How is it calculated?
With the haversine formula, from each airport’s latitude and longitude, using a mean Earth radius of 6,371 km. Miles are statute miles; nautical miles are 1,852 m.
What does “initial heading” mean?
The compass direction an aircraft would set off in on the great-circle path. On long routes the heading changes continuously along the way, which is why it’s called the initial heading.