LH453 distance and great-circle path
LH453 covers 9,616 km, or 5,975 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 83 by distance.
The plane leaves Munich heading north-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 MUC-LAX route appears on a tracker map.
Why LH453 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 12.2 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 790 km/h. An Airbus A380-800 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 Airbus A380-800 comfortably fly LH453?
Not really. It uses about 65% of the Airbus A380-800's range. That leaves room for a full load of passengers and bags. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Airbus A380-800.
What to know about LH453
- Time change: you land 8 hours behind the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.