VN98 distance and great-circle path
VN98 covers 12,598 km, or 7,828 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 19 by distance.
The plane leaves Ho Chi Minh City heading north-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 SGN-SFO route appears on a tracker map.
Why VN98 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 14.3 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 879 km/h. An Airbus A350-900 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 A350-900 comfortably fly VN98?
Not really. It uses about 84% of the Airbus A350-900's range. That leaves room for a full load of passengers and bags. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Airbus A350-900.
What to know about VN98
- Time change: you land 14 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.