Why do planes going to Europe from CA have to fly east when it would be faster to just continue going west?

Question

Is it some sort of FAA rule or something? Please explain, whoever can.

Answer 1

I believe you are mistaken.  It would take a lot longer to fly west from CA to Europe, than it does to fly east.  Also, planes can't just fly in a straight line from Point A to Point B.  They have to follow the "airways", like "roadways".  They have to always be within a certain range of a place they can land, in case of an emergency.

Answer 2

What cities did you have in mind?  A direct flight from LA going east to London is about 5500 miles.  Going to Paris instead is 5700 miles.

Going west from LA to Sapporo, Japan is just over 5,000 miles.  And it's a bit more than 500 miles to go from Japan to London or Paris, even if you went in a straight line THROUGH the earth.

Answer 3

it's obviously more convenient that way; otherwise, they wouldn't do it.  Have you seen the cost of gas lately?  That's probably your answer right there!

Answer 4

Direct flights don't go east either.  They fly the polar routes, which is more north!

From say LA, SF or Seattle the flight routes head over the arctic.  It's a straight line.  Look at a globe (a real one) and you'll see what I mean.

Answer 5

well, because they rather make a stop in New York or something, than to stop in some random country. It makes more sense. I mean its like about a 6hr fly from CA to across the country. You stop, they do what they need to do like pump fuel or whatever, and then you will head down to Europe. Beside, i think you have much more passenger going to Europe from New York, than from...CHINA...???

Answer 6

Because it's much, much longer that way. They would have to fly over all of Russia, a lot of China and all of the Pacific. The Atlantic is half the size of the Pacific so that route is about half the distance.

The typical route is head north, through Washington St. (sometimes Idaho), into Canada, over Greenland, sometimes Iceland and down usually from Scotland. There can be variations but that was typical.

Answer 7

What makes you think it would be faster for a plane going from California to fly west to Europe?  Do you know how long it takes for a flight from Los Angeles to get to Tokyo?  About the same time it takes for a flight from Los Angeles to get to London Heathrow -- 10 hours.  Flying from west to east is always going to be better than flying from east to west because you have the wind and the jet stream behind you when flying from west to east.