CA981 distance and great-circle path
CA981 covers 10,978 km, or 6,821 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 51 by distance.
The plane leaves Beijing 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 PEK-JFK route appears on a tracker map.
Why CA981 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 13.8 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 794 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 CA981?
Not really. It uses about 80% of the Boeing 777-300ER's range. That leaves room for a full load of passengers and bags. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Boeing 777-300ER.
What to know about CA981
- Time change: you land 12 hours behind 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.
- Flies far north: the real path runs much closer to the pole than a flat map suggests.