KE1TH

Hello all. This question is more to satisify my curiosity than anything else. I normally fly to Europe from Atlanta. The flight takes off NE and travels over South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia then basically follows the East Coast all the way up past Canada, passing Nova Scotia and New Foundland before actually crossing over open water. The flights come in to London or Paris from the northwest.

This trip, to save some money, I am flying from Atlanta to Miami then Miami to Madrid. I'm just wondering if the flight will basically follow the same route (ie: fly up the eastern seaboard) or, since Miami AND Madrid are much further south than Atlanta, London and Paris, will the flight take off and go directly out over the Atlantic and arrive in Madrid from a more westernly route. I've flown from LA to Sydney, so flying over vast amounts of water doesn't concern me, It's more a time thing.... seems that there would be an extra couple of hours involved if the flight path follows the eastern seaboard. Thanks, Keith

lincasanova

you should be able to see a timetable on the airline website.
i have flown madrid miami and i remember it being about 10 hours going westerly, but i don't recall exactly what route it followed.

wouldn't their website clear that up for you?

rex

I think that a globe and some string provides an answer to your question (but is it the right answer?)

Atlanta-London flies over maritime Canada because it is "on the way". But a string between south Florida and the Iberian peninsula crosses nothing but water.

Best wishes,

Rex

Gardyloo

Notwithstanding winds that might make vectors change, the route that you can see using http://gc.kls2.com/ will be quite accurate. Use airport codes, like MIA-MAD or MIA-MAD-LHR-BOS-MIA for multi-flight trips. Also helps you compute FF benefits.

rex

That's a pretty cool website. Neat to see online what I saw with a globe and a piece of string.

college_travelers

To add to this discussion as well as more information, the webiste below is a great source of information. Like other fodorites have stated, just input "MIA-MAD" under paths and then select the "138 minutes" ETOPS box. I am assuming you are flying AA on a 767, but if you are flying Iberia on a 747, I believe the same ETOPS ruling applies. It appears the 777-300 qualifies for the 330 minutes rule.

ETOPS is important and for more information about ETOPS, go to:

http://gc.kls2.com/faq.html#$etops

I flew AA 767 from Miami to Paris and we flew the North Atlantic Route and flew over Keflavik airport in Iceland, over London, and then into Paris. I was actually surprised to see the MIA-MAD route uses the more southernly route over the Azores. You would think the MIA to CDG route could just fly MIA over MAD and then onto CDG. Any way, some interesting facts. Has anyone actually flown from Miami to Paris on the southernly route?

college_travelers

Correction: ETOPS only applies to twin engine aircraft. I ment to say, an Airbus A330. I wasn't sure if Iberia flew them to MIA, but it appears they don't even fly the A330. They have the A340.

rkkwan

I believe most airline's flying 767 across the Atlantic has 180-minute ETOPS certification on their 767s, so route shouldn't be a problem. [Some 777 operators have 207-minute ETOPS.]

rex

Sheez - - this is a whle world of jargon and concepts I had never heard of before. Very interesting reading.

And I guess my statement about "nothing but water" is slightly inaccurate - - the Azores are at least vaguely on the MIA-MAD route.

Gardyloo

Rex, try Perth Australia (PER) to Buenos Aires (EZE) on the Great Circle Mapper. Wouldn't that be a cool flight? You'd sure as hell need a long ETOPS cert there.

Intrepid1

I suppose anything that diverts your attention from the price you had to pay for the trip is helpful.