AC3 distance and great-circle path
AC3 covers 7,502 km, or 4,662 miles. That makes it a long-haul flight, a widebody route with a full night's flying time. Of the 439 routes we track, it ranks 153 by distance.
The plane leaves Vancouver heading north-west. On the map above, the line looks curved. That is normal. The shortest path over a round planet never looks straight on a flat screen. Our guide explains how the YVR-NRT route appears on a tracker map.
Why AC3 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 13.1 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 573 km/h. A Boeing 787-9 cruises faster than that. The gap is taxi time, climbing, descending and holding.
Flying west, this route pushes against the wind. The trip back east is usually shorter, even though the distance is the same. See how timing changes the trip in our red-eye flight guide.
Can the Boeing 787-9 comfortably fly AC3?
Not at all. At roughly 54% of its range, this is an easy trip for a Boeing 787-9. The airline picked it for cabin size, not distance. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Boeing 787-9.
What to know about AC3
- Time change: you land 16 hours ahead of the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.
- Crosses the date line: the calendar date changes while you are in the air.