For hundreds of years, if you wanted to travel between Europe and North America, the only way to travel was by ship. One of the most famous operators of these ocean liners was Cunard. Its history dates back to 1839 when Canadian Samuel Cunard won the first British Government contract to supply a regular mail delivery service across the Atlantic. Travel by Cunard ship quickly grew into one of the most popular ways to cross the Atlantic. In the early days of the Twentieth Century, its ocean liners such as the Acquitania were able to reach speeds of up to 24 knots, meaning that it would take about one week’s time to complete the journey However, in the 1930s, aircraft were already starting to fly the route, albeit having to stop along the way.
In 1939, Pan Am flew from New York to Southampton on its flying boat Yankee Clipper, dropping in at several airfields along the way, including Newfoundland in Canada and Foynes in Ireland. Then, in 1958, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) became the first airline to operate a jet aircraft between London and New York with its de Havilland Comet. It took just ten hours and twenty minutes to fly between the two cities, with a single refueling stop along the way at Gander, Newfoundland. On the way back, assisted by a favorable tailwind, the journey took just six hours and twelve minutes, with an average speed of 580 mph. With this, the death of the ocean liner for long-haul travel rather than leisure cruises had begun. Despite these new speeds, aircraft still needed to refuel along the way, meaning that their prescribed routes required them to stay close to land. In addition, the reliability of engines at the time wasn’t particularly good, so pilots always needed an airport close by where they could land in an emergency. As the years progressed, technology improved and aircraft powered by four jet engines, such as the Boeing 707 and then the iconic Boeing 747, became the new ocean liners of the sky.
Even though they were fuel-thirsty machines, oil prices were low enough that airlines were able to turn a hefty profit when filling those giant, four-engine planes as they flew between continents. The beauty of those aircraft was that, should one of the engines fail, there were still three more available to keep flying safely. Even if yet another engine failed, the aircraft could still divert and land safely. Twin-engine aircraft were allowed to make the same journey but, due to their lack of engine redundancy, had to fly routes that kept them within 60 minutes of a diversion airport. Understandably, this added considerable distance to the route and as a result, time and fuel burn made their use less than ideal. That is until advancements in engine performance and reliability saw regulators permitting two-engine aircraft to fly farther and farther from the nearest adequate airfield in the event of an engine shutdown. Today, twin engine aircraft routinely cross the Atlantic between North America and Europe, with over 2,000 transatlantic flights taking place on a daily basis. In fact, the North Atlantic is the busiest area of oceanic airspace in the world!
Flying over the Atlantic Ocean has become fairly routine in that flight crews always know where the nearest diversion airfield is located. In practice, on most routes this is rarely more than ninety minutes to two hours away. But what about the Pacific? Flying over the Pacific Ocean is avoided by most airlines for most flights because it usually doesn’t make sense to overfly it when shorter and safer routes exist. The Pacific is also more remote and less safe to traverse than the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, resulting in a higher chance of an accident. Additionally, the Pacific Ocean is huge and remote, so if a plane were to go down, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to locate. In addition, the often-turbulent weather conditions that plague the Pacific make crossing it extremely challenging and potentially dangerous.
Airliners also prefer flying along “curved” routes over land as opposed to traversing oceans. These routes are generally shorter than straight routes over the ocean. When an aircraft flies from the United States to Japan, for example, a curved route over Canada and Alaska would be the shortest and most fuel efficient. The concept of curved routes can initially be somewhat difficult to comprehend looking at a flat map, but it soon becomes crystal clear if you study a globe. This means choosing not to fly directly over the Pacific Ocean saves airlines both fuel and time, which ultimately increases their profitability and means passengers pay less money for tickets and spend less time onboard the aircraft.
Beyond the time and money, it’s generally not safe for planes to fly over the Pacific Ocean, since it’s not an ideal place for an emergency landing. Responders would stand very little chance of tracking down and rescuing anyone from an aircraft that ditched into the Pacific, assuming anyone onboard somehow even managed to survive such a disaster in the first place. As a result, most airlines prefer flying over land since it is much safer to touchdown on solid ground, preferably near an airport where emergency services are available. Another reason why planes don’t overfly the Pacific is due to jet streams, which are a set of air currents that circle the Earth several miles above the planet’s surface. These air currents predominantly flow from west to east due to the Earth’s rotation. Flying in the same direction as a jet stream can save time and fuel for an aircraft, but flying against one causes dangerous turbulence and potential damage to the airplane. I was aboard a United flight to Australia once when we encountered strong turbulence. It shook the aircraft for several long minutes causing the wine bottles placed on the table in the B747 forward cabin to overturn. When things had settled down, our pilot announced, "And that ladies and gentlemen, was the jet stream."
This brings me to the exceptions made when aircraft fly directly across the Pacific from the Americas to Australia or vice versa. In addition to the Boeing 777, aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 are used for destinations like Australia and New Zealand. Of course, when flying between countries and regions such as Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Guam or the Philippines, there is no avoiding the Pacific Ocean. However, the distances from land are not as great and carriers often fly the Boeing 737 on these routes.
Ocean flying has its own set of rules and regulations, designed to ensure our safety while aloft. We can only be grateful to those who pioneered the Atlantic and Pacific routes and applaud the advancements in engine performance and avionics technology we now enjoy.
Until next time…safe travels.
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