Why do return flights take longer

This though does not happen. What matters then is the velocity of the aircraft in relation to the Earth. If you need proof of this, just remember that if you jump up, the Earth does not rotate under you.

If it did, you would land hundreds of meters away! It is rather due to its influence on wind patterns — the so-called high-altitude jet streams. A rotating object has a force perpendicular to the axis of rotation — this is known as the Coriolis force. This force pushes winds to the east in the northern hemisphere and to the west in the southern hemisphere.

The strength of this is related to the speed of rotation. Clear-air turbulence. Pilots navigate into these wind-tunnel-like air patterns, with speeds typically ranging from 80 to miles per hour, saving the airline both time and fuel and thus money. Jet streams tend to form near the tropopause, a border layer between the troposphere the lowest section of the earth's atmosphere, where practically all of the planet's weather events take place and the stratosphere the second lowest section, where temperatures are stratified with cooler air at lower altitudes and warmer air at higher altitudes.

These winds blow hardest in winter —at times, faster than miles per hour —when the degree difference between cold and warm air is at its most dramatic. A flight from the airline Pan-Am was scheduled for the route Tokyo-Honolulu specially in a jet stream.

The flight time for this route was 18 hours, but it was reduced to This made it possible to scrap the layover needed to re-fuel and direct flights from Tokyo to Honolulu started operating regularly. Furthermore, are jet streams a threat to our safety? However, as stated in the video above, the jet streams bend and turn and only consist of about kilometres wide and just a handful in depth. So, aircraft can get in and out of jet streams several times even while flying one single route.

However, movement between regular air and the jet stream is not dangerous at all. So when it comes to flying inside these sky highways; rest assured, you are safely in the hands of some of the most experienced professionals there are. Overall it reduced delays, fuel burn, noise, CO2 emissions and air traffic control congestion, and rapidly increased capacity. This is complicated by the fact they are investing heavily in the technology required by global air traffic control modernisation now underway.

It took some analysis from university The Georgia Institute of Technology to counter his considerable scepticism. Even so, he says the technology has never been fully integrated and tested within the whole air traffic control system.

While he is convinced there is great potential, he thinks BBFM needs that testing. So what does all this mean for passengers? With airlines gaming the system, as it stands, flight times will likely increase as more and more planes take to the skies. My view is they should stop complaining and do something about it, benefiting customers, employees, investors and the communities they serve.

Best of Worklife Why airlines make flights longer on purpose.