BA1 distance and great-circle path
BA1 covers 5,540 km, or 3,442 miles. That makes it a long-haul flight, a widebody route with a full night's flying time. Of the 255 routes we track, it ranks 154 by distance.
The plane leaves London heading 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 LHR–JFK route appears on a tracker map.
Why BA1 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 7.9 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 700 km/h. An Airbus A350-1000 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 high-altitude winds behave in our guide to turbulence and jet streams.
Can the Airbus A350-1000 comfortably fly BA1?
Not at all. At roughly 34% of its range, this is an easy trip for an Airbus A350-1000. The airline picked it for cabin size, not distance. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Airbus A350-1000.
What to know about BA1
- Time change: you land 5 hours behind the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.