MU587 distance and great-circle path
MU587 covers 11,873 km, or 7,378 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 32 by distance.
The plane leaves Shanghai 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 PVG-JFK route appears on a tracker map.
Why MU587 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 14.7 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 810 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 MU587?
Yes. The route uses roughly 87% 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 MU587
- 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.