I was tracking random A380 flights and found an Emirates flight headed to LAX and its a few thousand miles above it. The blue line is its planned route and the green is what they actually flew.
I wonder why they are that far north…
because according to the Flight Dispatch this is the fastest, most favourable (winds, weather in general) and best route fuel burn wise to fly on this certain day. Of course there are many more paramteres but a Route is wisely chosen and not just something made up. DXB-LAX is often a Polar Flight. Another one is AC on YYZ-HKG.
What i don’t understand was why he was up by Alaska
The blue line is not the planned route AFAIK. Flightradar and Flightaware know that this is a polar flight and draw the shortest line between this city pair - the blue line (maybe others can explain it better). It’s over Canada btw and sometimes Tracking sites get confused and show the plane heading in wrong direction which in fact it is still right on track
Ok then, thanks, got a bit confused there lol
This is because of the elliptical form of the Earth.
Flying over the North or South takes less than a route near the equator.
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Yes, exactly as Laurens said.
Take an orange or an apple, put 2 points on it. You will notice that the shortest path between these 2 points is a route passing by one of the poles…
Think if you’re flying to the other side of the world. With no other variables like weather involved, it doesn’t matter if you go north, south, east, or west. You’ll get there at the same time. In this case it’s probably the most economical route
It’s not Alaska, you know…