London to New York flight advice

[Gadget88]

I want to fly there but want to limit the time I would have flew Concorde had it still been in service. I notice another plane done it from London in 5 hours. So would I be best to fly from London or Edinburgh or can I stop off anywhere? Is the advertised time different to what it actually does it in? Like the 5 hour flight was probably ahead of schedule?

https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...k-london-gatwick-travel-holiday-a8169496.html

A Norwegian Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner departing from New York JFK reached London Gatwick in 5 hours 13 minutes on Monday — the fastest subsonic transatlantic flight recorded on a commercial aircraft. It beat the previous record of 5 hours 16 minutes.

There were 284 passengers on board, who, after leaving New York at 11.44 am ET, were probably pretty happy to arrive in London at 9.57 pm GMT — 53 minutes ahead of schedule. Strong tailwinds over the Atlantic Ocean pushed the aircraft to a top speed of 776 mph during the flight.

Though impressive, the flight time was nowhere near rivalling transatlantic crossings made by Concorde...

 

[MarcVD]

I want to fly there but want to limit the time I would have flew Concorde had it still been in service.

8000 Euros for a return ticket...

 

[Gadget88]

8000 Euros for a return ticket...

I would have paid whatever price to fly that way to be honest.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Generally, eastbound flights will cross the Atlantic faster than westbound flights because of the prevailing wind patterns, but the performance of that 787 was exceptional - the winds that day were absolutely perfect for the purpose.

Incidentally, Gadget, the photo in my avatar on the left here was taken at Mach 2 on 10th September 2002 on board G-BOAF on BA002... The flight time that day, 3h23, remains at present the slowest time I have ever done from Kennedy to Heathrow...

 

[jamesontheroad]

As Peter notes - westbound (from NYC to UK/EU) is always faster, because of the tailwinds. I've had some astonishingly short flights from Chicago and Montréal... despite Air Canada planning ahead and having us sit on the ground for a delayed take-off slot out of Montréal, we once arrived over London half an hour early, and had to wait in the holding pattern over the south of England for LHR to open.

Are you asking for the shortest possible journey time because you don't enjoy flying?

One option would be to fly via Iceland, which is approximately half-way, which might be attractive because it would give you a break in the middle of the journey. On the other hand, if take-off and landing are the parts of the journey that give you the most anxiety you would have to endure them both twice each way.

Alternatively, Air Canada fly direct from London Heathrow to St. John's Newfoundland (airport code YTT) a couple of days a week. The flight is booked for 5hr45m westbound and 5hr15m eastbound, but the flying time will be a lot less. In the last week, the flight has taken as little as 4h12m from runway to runway.

Otherwise, if you want to fly direct, it's going to be really difficult to choose one airline over another. The type of plane won't make a huge difference, as the shortest journey times are almost always driven by meteorological conditions. If you suffer anxiety from flying, consider a larger aircraft (i.e. not the single-aisle 757 generally used by United Airlines to regional UK cities and Icelandair; the 737 used by Air Canada to St. John's; or the Airbus A320/321 used by Wow Air through Iceland). A larger plane (A330, 767, 787, etc) will give you more room to walk around during the flight.

 

[Alfonso]

You could hop to Ireland or fly to east coast of Canada, or split not very in the middle in Iceland, or you could bite the bullet and join the millions of people who travel for more than five hours in a row and live to tell the tale.

 

[jopsuk]

on the very opposite of the "Try a larger plane", there's BA001, London City to New York JFK in a business-only A318. Schedule is 9h 25min, but that's made up of 1hr 20 to Shannon, immigration & customs pre-clearance there and then ~6hrs 50 to New York. Check in at City closes only 20 minutes before departure (15 without hold luggage) and at JFK you're treated as a domestic arrival.

There's only the one flight a day now though, the second was withdrawn and BA sold the second plane to Titan

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The article fails to mention that all eastbound services will have had the same boost from the jet stream that day.
There is also very little speed difference between aircraft types, and it can easily be nullified by congestion at either end.
Also the westbound flights on that day, always longer than the eastbound, may well have been longer than normal battling against the same jet stream.
Booking in advance, there's no way of knowing how much longer or shorter than normal a flight is going to be.

 

[Gadget88]

As Peter notes - westbound (from NYC to UK/EU) is always faster, because of the tailwinds. I've had some astonishingly short flights from Chicago and Montréal... despite Air Canada planning ahead and having us sit on the ground for a delayed take-off slot out of Montréal, we once arrived over London half an hour early, and had to wait in the holding pattern over the south of England for LHR to open.

Are you asking for the shortest possible journey time because you don't enjoy flying?

One option would be to fly via Iceland, which is approximately half-way, which might be attractive because it would give you a break in the middle of the journey. On the other hand, if take-off and landing are the parts of the journey that give you the most anxiety you would have to endure them both twice each way.

Alternatively, Air Canada fly direct from London Heathrow to St. John's Newfoundland (airport code YTT) a couple of days a week. The flight is booked for 5hr45m westbound and 5hr15m eastbound, but the flying time will be a lot less. In the last week, the flight has taken as little as 4h12m from runway to runway.

Otherwise, if you want to fly direct, it's going to be really difficult to choose one airline over another. The type of plane won't make a huge difference, as the shortest journey times are almost always driven by meteorological conditions. If you suffer anxiety from flying, consider a larger aircraft (i.e. not the single-aisle 757 generally used by United Airlines to regional UK cities and Icelandair; the 737 used by Air Canada to St. John's; or the Airbus A320/321 used by Wow Air through Iceland). A larger plane (A330, 767, 787, etc) will give you more room to walk around during the flight.

Thanks so how do I get from St. John's Newfoundland go New York?

 

[Gadget88]

What about flying to Halifax?

 

[Royston Vasey]

If you want to “limit the time” just fly to New York. It’s not worth messing around in Iceland or eastern Canada only to get on another flight and end up in the same place several hours later than you would have with a load of extra hassle two thirds of the way through. Typical time in the air is about 7 hours from LHR to JFK. It’s rarely more than 7.5.

 

[gazthomas]

If flying is a problem and you have plenty of time have you considered going by ship?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

If flying is a problem and you have plenty of time have you considered going by ship?

My retirement treat was a long standing ambition to cross by Cunard from Southampton to NYC , highly commended and not stupidly expensive when you basically get a week's accommodation at 5 star service ..not to mention (this being the last westbound of the year in early November) , a force 8 in Mid- Atlantic.

 

[gazthomas]

My retirement treat was a long standing ambition to cross by Cunard from Southampton to NYC , highly commended and not stupidly expensive when you basically get a week's accommodation at 5 star service ..not to mention (this being the last westbound of the year in early November) , a force 8 in Mid- Atlantic.

Spot on!

 

[Bald Rick]

If you want the shortest journey time, then flying direct from London / Birmingham / Manchester / Scotland will be much the same time, direct non-stop to New York. It will be about 7h in the air, quicker on the way back, subject to the jet stream as others have said.

If you want to do with the shortest single leg, then UK-Dublin-St John’s-Halifax-Montreal-New York is best.

You could do UK to Dublin on the surface, Dublin-St John’s is about 4h in the air (less on the return), St John’s to Halifax is under 2h in the air (by turboprop, I suspect), then surface from there (Halifax - Montreal 21h by train, Montreal to New York 10h by train). Including connections etc, the journey would take 4 days at least. You could save a day by flying St John’s - Montreal, which takes about 30 minutes longer than flying to Halifax.

 

[Bald Rick]

My retirement treat was a long standing ambition to cross by Cunard from Southampton to NYC , highly commended and not stupidly expensive when you basically get a week's accommodation at 5 star service ..not to mention (this being the last westbound of the year in early November) , a force 8 in Mid- Atlantic.

I can think of no worse way to travel the Atlantic, short of rowing / swimming!

 

[MotCO]

Or you could head east on the Trans Siberian Railway, and a short hop over the Bering Strait, and you're in America.

 

[Alfonso]

If you want to “limit the time” just fly to New York. It’s not worth messing around in Iceland or eastern Canada only to get on another flight and end up in the same place several hours later than you would have with a load of extra hassle two thirds of the way through. Typical time in the air is about 7 hours from LHR to JFK. It’s rarely more than 7.5.

We all have our quirks and foibles, and if you look at Gadget's other posts, you'll see that breaking up journeys to far flung places into bite size chunks seems like his/her specialty.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I can think of no worse way to travel the Atlantic, short of rowing / swimming!

Well I come from a maritime tradition - great great grandfather was a Dutch sea captain in the 19thC -- on sail - he would have regarded that as a very soft option compared to going to Swansea to Valpariaso or Lima with coal out and guano or copper ore back. A mere 5 months round trip......

It really is a good experience , next time do it the other way to allow USA book purchases in bulk.....

 

[Busaholic]

Well I come from a maritime tradition - great great grandfather was a Dutch sea captain in the 19thC -- on sail - he would have regarded that as a very soft option compared to going to Swansea to Valpariaso or Lima with coal out and guano or copper ore back. A mere 5 months round trip......

It really is a good experience , next time do it the other way to allow USA book purchases in bulk.....

I never did the QE2 out/ Concorde return that was on offer throughout the 1970s/ early 80s for a few hundred quid, with about three nights' stay in a good NY hotel included. I wanted my first ever view of New York to be coming in to dock soon after sunrise, which it was timed to do. I still haven't seen NY and probably never will now!

My wife used to come back from the USA (on the plane) with hundreds of books, in days when it wasn't a problem and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Royston Vasey]

We all have our quirks and foibles, and if you look at Gadget's other posts, you'll see that breaking up journeys to far flung places into bite size chunks seems like his/her specialty.

I should have known this was the poster who wanted to go by train to Italy but hates long rail journeys. Well it takes all sorts!

 

[Gadget88]

I should have known this was the poster who wanted to go by train to Italy but hates long rail journeys. Well it takes all sorts!

Yes I have found a solution for that to visit Milan for a day trip from Zurich can reach it in 3 hours.

 

[DelW]

It really is a good experience , next time do it the other way to allow USA book purchases in bulk.....

There are two downsides to the eastbound sea crossing as opposed to westbound:
Firstly coming into Southampton in the early morning is a lot less spectacular than into New York (even though that's a bit less scenic now than when QE2 / QM2 used to dock on the Hudson River up around 50th St, rather than at Brooklyn cruise terminal).
Secondly you lose an hour most nights instead of gaining an hour, which tends to curtail late night entertainment, for me at least.
Personally, I'd choose westbound ship, eastbound flight, books in a cardboard box by courier ☺

 

[Gadget88]

I found Glasgow to Halifax 6 hours would it do it in less daily? It’s a 737 possibly a max so they might not be the best plans to fly with? I see from Halifax it’s only 2 hours so perhaps I could do that rather than Iceland?

 

[Gadget88]

The return leg might be easier as I believe I could return quicker

 

[farci]

I took the GLA-YHZ (Halifax) some time back with a 737 (before the MAX) and it was very comfortable. But check onward connections to New York. I believe US preclearance closes at 1630 local time

 

[Gadget88]

I took the GLA-YHZ (Halifax) some time back with a 737 (before the MAX) and it was very comfortable. But check onward connections to New York. I believe US preclearance closes at 1630 local time

Yes going out seems fine but I’m not keen on a night fight most New York to Uk flights I found seem to run from 8pm to 8am. I can’t sleep on a plane so this might be an issue for me.

 

[175mph]

When I visited Toronto in 2015, the actual flight from Heathrow to Toronto was 7 hours long.

 

[trainmania100]

I think it took me around 7 hours on a 777 last November flying from Gatwick to JFK
I had never experienced a flight of that length before and felt somewhat uncomfortable with the close proximity next to the passenger beside me.
Luckily the seats in front had entertainment including the laatest film releases such as Mamma Mia 2 and that action film filmed near Blackfriars with the bloke that broke his ankle.
Much to my disappointment not all of the film's had subtitles so I couldn't enjoy all of the films

 

[Gadget88]

I have found a solution I seem happy with. 5 hours 40 to Glasgow to Halifax and check into a hotel. 2 hours next day to New York or something like Iceland to Boston 5 hours so I can take a train to New York? Problem is the return leg I don’t want to travel overnight I can’t sleep on a plane can anybody find me any suitable flights? Best I can find is New York to London and getting back at 10pm but it’s not ideal as I need to get back upto Edinburgh. Staying in Washington or Boston is options for me or another city.