JL6 distance and great-circle path
JL6 covers 10,875 km, or 6,758 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 57 by distance.
The plane leaves Tokyo 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 HND-JFK route appears on a tracker map.
Why JL6 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 12.1 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 900 km/h. An Airbus A350-1000 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 why long flights take odd-looking routes.
Can the Airbus A350-1000 comfortably fly JL6?
Not really. It uses about 68% of the Airbus A350-1000's range. That leaves room for a full load of passengers and bags. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Airbus A350-1000.
What to know about JL6
- Time change: you land 13 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.