AF990 distance and great-circle path
AF990 covers 8,737 km, or 5,429 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 123 by distance.
The plane leaves Paris heading south-east. 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 CDG-JNB route appears on a tracker map.
Why AF990 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 10.4 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 839 km/h. An Airbus A350-900 cruises faster than that. The gap is taxi time, climbing, descending and holding.
Winds aloft shift the real flight time by up to an hour in either direction. See how timing changes the trip in our red-eye flight guide.
Can the Airbus A350-900 comfortably fly AF990?
Not really. It uses about 58% of the Airbus A350-900's range. That leaves room for a full load of passengers and bags. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Airbus A350-900.
What to know about AF990
- Time change: you land 1 hour ahead of the time you left.
- Crosses the equator: you swap seasons between takeoff and landing.
- High airport at the end: JNB sits 5,558 ft up, so the plane lands faster than it looks.