Why does it take longer for airplanes to fly south then north?

Answer 1

In the northern hemisphere the jet stream flows from west to east in the upper atmosphere. Airliners take advantage of the extra flow to gain speed, just like a boat travelling downstream goes faster than one going upstream. The above post is correct, so to answer your question, "as a general rule," it should take longer flying west in the Northern Hemisphere than flying the same route east, and just the opposite would be true in the Southern Hemisphere. This is a general rule only, as it is entirely a function of the winds.

To understand in detail how head winds and tail winds impact a plane, see link http://www.pilotoutlook.com/airplane_flying/performance_and_limitations

Answer 2

It actually takes longer to fly south to north, as when you are flying towards the northern hemisphere you are going uphill. Alternatively, when you are flying north to south you are flying downhill which is obviously faster. It's like if you try to ride a bike up a hill, it will take longer due to gravity. If you're going downhill you're unstoppable.

Answer 3

At first glance, it may be hard to accept, but head winds are the main reason. On the flip side, tail winds make your west to east trip shorter. There is a great explanation here http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/dynamics/q0027.shtml

Answer 4

(This answer is not my original creation. I have referred it from Yahoo answers.) The reason for the difference is a atmospheric phenomena known as the jet stream. The jet stream is a very high altitude wind which always blows from the West to the East across the Atlantic. The planes moving at a constant air speed thus go faster in the West-East direction when they are moving with the wind than in the opposite direction.

Every planet has global wind which are mostly determined by the way the planet rotates and how evenly the Sun illuminates it. On the Earth the equator gets much more Sun than the poles. resulting in warmer air at the equator than the poles and creating circulation cells (or "Hadley Cells") which consist of warm air rising over the equator and then moving North and South from it and back round.

The Earth is also rotating. When any solid body rotates, bits of it that are nearer its axis move slower than those which are further away. As you move north (or south) from the equator, you are moving closer to the axis of the Earth and so the air which started at the equator and moved north (or south) will be moving faster than the ground it is over (it has the rotation speed of the ground at the equator, not the ground which is is now over). This results in winds which always move from the west to the east in the mid latitudes.

Answer 5

Nearly all of the jet stream winds are from west to east. This makes planes go faster flying east and slower going west. They use more fuel going west, too, so why aren't flights from east to west more expensive?

Answer 6

Its basically due to the earth's slipstream - because the earth rotates west to east it kinda pulls the air with it. So when you fly east to west you are flying against this slipstream that occurs high up ( where jets fly)

Answer 7

Flying west you are going against the jet stream and the prevailing flow of air. Flying east, you are going with the prevailing winds.

Answer 8

the earth is moving East to West.