TK52 distance and great-circle path
TK52 covers 8,979 km, or 5,579 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 91 by distance.
The plane leaves Istanbul 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 IST–NRT route appears on a tracker map.
Why TK52 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 13.0 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 691 km/h. A Boeing 787-9 cruises faster than that. The gap is taxi time, climbing, descending and holding.
Flying east, this route usually picks up tailwinds high up. The flight back west normally takes longer, even though the distance is identical. See how timing changes the trip in our red-eye flight guide.
What to know about TK52
- Time change: you land 6 hours ahead of the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.