LH456 distance and great-circle path
LH456 covers 9,321 km, or 5,792 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 97 by distance.
The plane leaves Frankfurt 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 FRA-LAX route appears on a tracker map.
Why LH456 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 11.8 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 793 km/h. A Boeing 747-8 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 high-altitude winds behave in our guide to turbulence and jet streams.
Can the Boeing 747-8 comfortably fly LH456?
Not really. It uses about 65% of the Boeing 747-8's range. That leaves room for a full load of passengers and bags. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Boeing 747-8.
What to know about LH456
- Time change: you land 8 hours behind the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.