MH370 distance and great-circle path
MH370 covers 4,414 km, or 2,743 miles. That makes it a long-haul flight, a widebody route with a full night's flying time. Of the 255 routes we track, it ranks 173 by distance.
The plane leaves Kuala Lumpur heading north. 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 KUL–PEK route appears on a tracker map.
Why MH370 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 5.8 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 757 km/h. A Boeing 777-200ER 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 777-200ER comfortably fly MH370?
Not at all. At roughly 34% of its range, this is an easy trip for a Boeing 777-200ER. The airline picked it for cabin size, not distance. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Boeing 777-200ER.
What to know about MH370
- Time change: none. Both cities keep the same clock, so arrival time reads exactly as you expect.