DL200 distance and great-circle path
DL200 covers 13,582 km, or 8,440 miles. That makes it an ultra-long-range flight, one of the longest commercial sectors flown anywhere. Of the 439 routes we track, it ranks 12 by distance.
The plane leaves Atlanta heading 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 ATL-JNB route appears on a tracker map.
Why DL200 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 16.3 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 832 km/h. An Airbus A350-900 cruises faster than that. The gap is taxi time, climbing, descending and holding.
Flying east, this route usually picks up tailwinds high up. The flight back west normally takes longer, even though the distance is identical. See how timing changes the trip in our red-eye flight guide.
Can the Airbus A350-900 comfortably fly DL200?
Yes. The route uses roughly 91% of what an Airbus A350-900 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 Airbus A350-900.
What to know about DL200
- Time change: you land 6 hours ahead of the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.
- 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.