How far out do planes start descending?

Question

How far out (km/miles) would a commercial airplane like a 747 or a 737 start descend to land and at what descent rate would they descend at?

Thankyou

Answer 1

Nobody ever gets this one right. Take your altitude in thousands of feet and triple it. An airplane at 35,000 feet should start down about 105 miles out.

Answer 2

It depends mostly on the composition of the airspace in the airport that they are flying into. For example: arriving in Denver from the west requires first that the aircraft be above the mountains. Some areas on the east coast are highly congested and require approaches which are designed to not conflict with surrounding airports so they may descent faster or slower based on avoiding other approach or departure lines. Generally however, the terminal control (TRACON) area extends outward to or beyond 50 nmi from the airport and the controlling center (ARTCC) will begin putting the aircraft on descent before passing it off to approach control.

Best luck!

Answer 3

It depends on how high they are and how far they are from their destination.

Answer 4

Take your altitude to lose and triple it.  If your landing field is 5000 feet msl, and you are flying at 35,000 feet, you need 90 miles.  If ATC cannot let you start that far out, you may need to slow down and add some drag when you get closer in.  Also, you do have to take mountains and other obstacles into consideration.

Answer 5

I don't know the numbers in kilometers, but a descent from 35,000 feet is typically started 120 to 140 nautical miles away from the landing airport. The rate of descent is typically 2-3,000 feet per minute at the higher altitudes and lessens as the descent progresses.

This answer is meant to represent Continental United States answers to airports such as SFO or JFK.

Answer 6

IT all depend on many factors  but around 60-30 miles awaw