MODO AVIÓN

El Calafate to Buenos Aires flight path

FTE → AEPFTEAEP
The shortest path on the sphere. On a flat map it looks curved; on the globe it is a straight line.

Along the shortest route, the flight from El Calafate to Buenos Aires covers 1,290 miles (2,070 km) — about 2 h 55 min with no wind. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean and Bahía Blanca: 26% of the route is over water.

Get Modo Avión for Android Share this route

From El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport (FTE) to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP) · FTE · AEP

FTEEl Calafate
AEPBuenos Aires
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 El Calafate to Buenos Aires?

  • Argentina
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Bahía Blanca

Which side of the plane to sit on to see Cordillera del Paine

To see Cordillera del Paine (2,500 m), sit on the left: it lies about 6 km from the route, ≈ 15 min into the flight.

Left window
  • Cordillera del Paine (2,500 m) ≈ 15 min
  • Bahía Blanca ≈ 2 h 00 min
Right window

—

Left and right facing forward, on the theoretical route. Times are from take-off, with no wind.

Leg by leg

1 h2 hUTC−3Atlantic OceanValdes PeninsulaBahía Blanca 73 kmFTEAEP▲ Left window▼ Right window◀ Left windowRight window ▶1 h2 hValdes PeninsulaCordillera del Paine2,500 m · 6 kmBahía Blanca73 km off routeFTEAEPUTC−3

LandWaterCity, with its distance from the routePeakClock change

See the full list, leg by leg
  1. Take-off from El Calafate - Commander Armando Tola International Airport
  2. Cordillera del Paine, 2,500 m — on the left, 6 km away0 km · ≈ 15 min into the flight
  3. Below: Valdes Peninsula1,040 km · ≈ 1 h 25 min into the flight
  4. Water starts: Atlantic Ocean and Bahía Blanca1,360 km · ≈ 1 h 50 min into the flight
  5. Bahía Blanca, Argentina — on the left, 73 km away1,500 km · ≈ 2 h 00 min into the flight
  6. Below: Pampas1,510 km · ≈ 2 h 00 min into the flight
  7. Land again1,510 km · ≈ 2 h 00 min into the flight
  8. Landing at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery2,070 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.

Take-offLanding

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.

Get Modo Avión for Android

Free · no account · no ads · 28.4 MB · Android 8 or newer

How to install it (Spanish)

Arriving in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires · Photo: ProtoplasmaKid · CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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

kmTimeZone
0 kmUTC−3Rio Gallegos

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.

  • Comodoro Rivadavia
  • Ezeiza

FAQ

Where does the plane fly from El Calafate to Buenos Aires?

Along the shortest route, the flight from El Calafate to Buenos Aires covers 1,290 miles (2,070 km) — about 2 h 55 min with no wind. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean and Bahía Blanca: 26% of the route is over water.

What countries do you fly over from El Calafate to Buenos Aires?

It passes over or close to Argentina, and crosses the Atlantic Ocean and Bahía Blanca. This is the theoretical route: the aircraft may deviate for wind or closed airspace.

How long is the flight from El Calafate to Buenos Aires?

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 El Calafate from Buenos Aires 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: Buenos Aires → El Calafate

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.

Follow this route offline Get the app