What is the Flight Path from Phoenix to London?

Answer 1

Most transatlantic flight will take the so-called "great circle" or "polar" route unless weather dictates it. In the case of a flight going from London to Phoenix, the flight will turn northwest and fly towards Manchester, then over the Irish Sea, passing close to Belfast and possibly the southwest tip of Scotland, then the flight will continue flying northwest towards Iceland and then the flight will head over southern Greenland. The flight will then start flying southwest over much of Canada (including Hudson Bay, Nunavut Territory etc) before flying over the northern states of the USA. The flight will then head southwest and slowly descend into Phoenix, AZ.

Answer 2

9 hours

Northwest towards Southern Scotland from London then over the tip of Greenland through northeast Canada towards Phoenix.

That answer was correct for the most part, only in reverse...so, from Phoenix to London, expect a departure path that takes your north out of Phoenix. Sound strange? Well, remember we all live on a big ball, so aviation uses something called a "Great Circle Route". Imagine a Basketball with a dot on one side representing Phoenix and a dot over on the other side representing London. If you wrap a big string or rubber band around the ball, covering both dots, and then imagine the map of the world superimposed over the ball, you'll see its much faster to follow the string then it would be to fly a straight line path from Phoenix to London when looking at a flat paper map (i.e., going directly northeast toward Boston across the ocean straight to London). So anyway, after leaving Sky Harbor to the north you will be crossing over Salt Lake City Utah, a small portion of western Wyoming, and Montana. You'll cross into Canadian airspace at that time traveling over Saskatchewan and Alberta before crossing over Hudson Bay (If its day time and you're looking out your window, it may look like the Ocean, but its not, you are only roughly 4 1/2 hours into your flight, you have a ways to go for your Ocean crossing). From the Hudson, you'll pass over the northwestern passages then you'll go "feet wet" over the North Atlantic Ocean as you head toward the southern tip of Greenland. On a clear day, or depending on flight plans and weather, you might get to see the southern tip of Iceland out the left side of the aircraft as you begin your gradual decent down and over to the Irish coast, over a bit of Scotland, and into English airspace, arriving in London about 10hrs: 15 minutes after leaving Sky Harbor. Enjoy your flight!