What is the average altitude at which a passenger air-liner flies? whats the max?

Question

Is there any major diiference between domestic and international flights?

Answer 1

About 10,000 to 15,000 metres, depending on where the jetstreams are and traffic separation requirements.  All fly at the same cruising altitude - there is no difference between international and domestic.

Answer 2

Most airliners are designed to be operated economically between 30,000 and 40,000 feet (9,000 and 12,000 metres).  They can fly both lower and higher, but airplanes and air traffic systems favor this range.

The maximum altitude for airliners is typically around 45,000 feet, depending on the specific aircraft.  They don't fly this high in practice for a number of reasons, one of which is a regulatory requirement that they be able to descend within a certain number of minutes in case cabin pressure is lost.

There's no difference between domestic and international flights, but the length of the flight makes a difference.  The longer the flight, the higher the aircraft usually flies. Flying at a high altitude uses less fuel, but it also requires more time to climb after take-off.  For short flights, the savings of high altitude doesn't compensate for the high cost of the fuel required to climb that high, whereas for long flights, the cost of the climb is much lower than the savings in fuel gained from high altitude.  Some longer flights start at a lower altitude, when they are heavy with fuel, and then gradually climb over the course of the flight as fuel burns off ("step climbs," in aviation jargon).

Very short flights may only climb to 20,000 or even 16,000 feet; the aircraft burns a lot of fuel in cruise at these altitudes, but if the distance is only 120 miles, it's still more economical.  Long-haul transoceanic flights may climb above 40,000 feet over time in order to save fuel.

The Concorde could fly much higher than ordinary airliners (around 60,000 feet)—in fact, it had to, since the fuel required to fly at supersonnic speeds at lower altitudes, in thicker air, was more than it could carry.

Answer 3

Typically around 35,000 ft (FL350) but most of them can go up to 41,000ft (FL410).