Good afternoon, morning, or evening..

 

I wasn't sure where to find out this information, so I figured I'd start here with all you aviation buffs.

 

I was looking on flightaware for a flight plan from Dubai (OMDB) to Seattle (KSEA), I knew that United Arab Emirates flew non stop to and from.

 

I'm curious as to why there flight plan FROM Dubai Is only YNY J503 YDC JAKSN GLASR9, as opposed to flying TO Dubai from Seattle is STMSN DIABO J503 YDC YQU J526 YOJ YHY J526 YZF 7000N 11100W 7500N 11000W 8000N 10500W 8500N 9700W ABERI G359 SH G498 ALAGI G498 TINRI A299 BALPI A299 URG A370 AFGAN G775 ASB A117 RIKOP A419 DARAX.

 

Why does one flight plan seem abnormally short compared to what I would expect, and the other is longer, more like I would expect to see... ?

Any thoughts or ideas on that?  

 

Thanks In advance!

 

-Carl

Hi Carl,

 

I bumped into this topic, and I have an answer, so

 

This happens because of the jet stream. You probably know this already, but it's a "belt" of winds that travel all the way around the world. There are two of them, one in the Northern Hemisphere, the other in the South. They always travel on an Easterly direction. They're also relatively narrow, which means you have to be heading East and be right over one of them to benefit from it.

 

The shortest route from Dubai to Seattle is a polar one that flies almost over the North Pole, see it here: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=OMDB-ksea which is what Emirates flies when going that way. But on the way back, they deliberately pick a longer route (by about 800nm!). This route, though, lies almost entirely inside the jet stream, which they "surf" halfway around the world, and arrive there almost a full hour earlier than the polar route. That's quicker, which also means less fuel. Thank you NASA for your weather satellites .