Buenos Aires to El Calafate flight path
Along the shortest route, the flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate covers 1,290 miles (2,070 km) — about 2 h 55 min with no wind. It crosses Bahía Blanca and the Atlantic Ocean: 26% of the route is over water.
Get Modo Avión for Android Share this route
From Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP) to El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport (FTE) · AEP · FTE
- Great-circle distance
- 2,070 km
- Duration, no wind
- 2 h 55 min
- Over water
- 26 %
- Time difference today
- +0 h
The route drawn is the theoretical one — the shortest path on the sphere. The real aircraft follows airways, avoids storms and closed airspace, and rides the wind: it can be hundreds of kilometres off.
What countries do you fly over from Buenos Aires to El Calafate?
- Argentina
- Bahía Blanca
- Atlantic Ocean
Which side of the plane to sit on to see Cordillera del Paine
To see Cordillera del Paine (2,500 m), sit on the right: it lies about 6 km from the route, ≈ 2 h 40 min into the flight.
—
- Bahía Blanca ≈ 55 min
- Cordillera del Paine (2,500 m) ≈ 2 h 40 min
Left and right facing forward, on the theoretical route. Times are from take-off, with no wind.
Leg by leg
LandWaterCity, with its distance from the routePeakClock change
See the full list, leg by leg
- Take-off from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
- Below: Pampas7 km · ≈ 15 min into the flight
- Water starts: Bahía Blanca and Atlantic Ocean565 km · ≈ 55 min into the flight
- Bahía Blanca, Argentina — on the right, 73 km away571 km · ≈ 55 min into the flight
- Land again717 km · ≈ 1 h 05 min into the flight
- Below: Valdes Peninsula979 km · ≈ 1 h 25 min into the flight
- Landing at El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport2,070 km · ≈ 2 h 40 min into the flight
- Cordillera del Paine, 2,500 m — on the right, 6 km away2,070 km · ≈ 2 h 40 min into the flight
Times assume a typical jet speed, no wind and an on-time departure. Good for orientation, not for your watch.
Which side the sun, sunrise or sunset will be on
Enter the day and take-off time. Your phone does the maths: the sun's position on every leg of the route, relative to the nose of the aircraft.
Sky: light is daytime, amber is sunrise or sunset, dark is night. Left and Right show which side the sun is on for each leg.
Follow the route offline in airplane mode
All of this on board and with no signal: with your phone in airplane mode, Modo Avión shows where you are, what's below and how long is left. GPS still works, because it only listens to satellites.
Free · no account · no ads · 28.4 MB · Android 8 or newer
Arriving in El Calafate
Flight time and distance
About 2 h 55 min with no wind, including half an hour of taxi, climb and descent. On a long flight the wind aloft can change that by more than an hour, differently each way.
1,290 miles (2,070 km, 1,120 nautical miles) along the great circle. The real flight covers a little more because it follows airways.
Time zones you cross
| km | Time | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| 0 km | UTC−3 | Buenos Aires |
Airspace (FIRs) along the route
Each is a control region: when the aircraft crosses the boundary, the centre talking to the pilot changes. Boundaries are approximate, from the VATSIM data set, not the official ICAO chart.
- Ezeiza
- Comodoro Rivadavia
FAQ
Where does the plane fly from Buenos Aires to El Calafate?
Along the shortest route, the flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate covers 1,290 miles (2,070 km) — about 2 h 55 min with no wind. It crosses Bahía Blanca and the Atlantic Ocean: 26% of the route is over water.
What countries do you fly over from Buenos Aires to El Calafate?
It passes over or close to Argentina, and crosses Bahía Blanca and the Atlantic Ocean. This is the theoretical route: the aircraft may deviate for wind or closed airspace.
How long is the flight from Buenos Aires to El Calafate?
About 2 h 55 min with no wind, including half an hour of taxi, climb and descent. On a long flight the wind aloft can change that by more than an hour, differently each way.
How far is Buenos Aires from El Calafate by plane?
1,290 miles (2,070 km, 1,120 nautical miles) along the great circle. The real flight covers a little more because it follows airways.
How much of the flight is over water?
26% of the route, about 531 km. The longest stretch without land is 152 km.
Why doesn't the plane fly in a straight line on the map?
It does fly straight — on a sphere. On a flat map the shortest path looks curved; on the globe on this page it looks like what it is.
Does GPS work in airplane mode?
Yes. GPS is a receiver: it listens to satellites and transmits nothing, so it keeps working in airplane mode. What you won't have is a map unless you downloaded it; Modo Avión carries its own.
More routes
The way back: El Calafate → Buenos Aires
- Buenos Aires → Bariloche
- Buenos Aires → Ushuaia
- Buenos Aires → Iguazu
- Buenos Aires → Mendoza
- Buenos Aires → Salta
- Buenos Aires → Cordoba
- Buenos Aires → Tucumán
- Buenos Aires → Neuquén
- Buenos Aires → San Martín de los Andes
- Buenos Aires → Mar del Plata
Look up another route
How this was calculated
The route is the great-circle arc between both airports, split into 300 points. At each point a point-in-polygon test runs against 1,102 airspace regions, 418 time zones and 1,338 physical geography regions. Countries are those with a town within 25 km of the route: in empty areas one may be missing. Cities named have over 250,000 people and lie within 110 km.