What you fly over between Los Angeles and Narita

The LAX–NRT flight covers 8,753 km, crosses 5 airspace regions and 2 time zones, and spends 96% of the way over water. See what is below you, leg by leg.

The planet seen from outside, with the LAX–NRT route drawn as a line between both airports
The route over the planet. On a flat map the short path looks curved; here it looks like what it is: a straight line on a sphere.

Summary

Estimated duration
10 h 34 min
Great-circle distance
8,753 km
In miles
5,439 mi · 4,726 NM
Initial bearing
306°
Over water
96% · 8,432 km
Longest stretch of water
8,432 km · Pacific Ocean
Time difference
+16 h

Airspace regions crossed (5)

Each one is a separate control region: when the aircraft crosses the boundary, the centre talking to the pilot changes. Boundaries are approximate — they come from the VATSIM data set, not from the official ICAO chart.

  1. Los Angeles
  2. Oakland
  3. Oakland Oceanic
  4. Tokyo - Tokyo Oceanic
  5. Fukuoka ACC - Fukuoka

Time zones crossed (2)

  1. America/Los_Angeles
  2. Asia/Tokyo

Where it passes

Named oceans, seas, mountain ranges, deserts and islands under the track, in order.

  1. Pacific Coast Ranges
  2. Japan
  3. Honshu

Peaks near the route

Within 120 km of the track. Highest first.

  • Junipero Serra Peak — 1,787 m

And all of this, on board

Modo Avión does all of this with no signal, with the phone in airplane mode: where you are, what you are flying over and how much is left. Free, no account, and nothing is sent to any server.

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How this was calculated

The route is the great circle 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 polygons. A real aircraft does not fly the exact great circle: it follows airways, avoids storms and rides the wind. This is the reference, not the flight plan.