AI126 distance and great-circle path
AI126 covers 12,023 km, or 7,471 miles. That makes it an ultra-long-haul flight, near the limit of what most twinjets can fly non-stop. Of the 439 routes we track, it ranks 28 by distance.
The plane leaves Chicago heading north. 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 ORD-DEL route appears on a tracker map.
Why AI126 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 14.2 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 844 km/h. A Boeing 777-300ER 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 Boeing 777-300ER comfortably fly AI126?
Yes. The route uses roughly 88% of what a Boeing 777-300ER can fly. On a windy day the airline may carry less cargo to save fuel. Flights this close to the limit are the ones that sometimes make a fuel stop. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Boeing 777-300ER.
What to know about AI126
- Time change: you land 10 hours ahead of the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.
- Flies far north: the real path runs much closer to the pole than a flat map suggests.