Flight Distance Between Major US Cities

Short answer: when people ask "how far is Dallas from Houston" or "what's the flight distance from Chicago to Boston," they almost never mean driving distance. They mean the straight line an aircraft actually flies, the great-circle distance between the two airports, which is a different and usually shorter number than anything you'd see on a road atlas.

Driving from Chicago to Washington DC covers a lot more ground than the plane does, because a car has to follow interstates around lakes, through mountain passes, and around cities, while a flight cuts straight across. If you're trying to estimate flight time, compare route lengths, or just satisfy curiosity about how close two cities really are as the crow flies, the air distance is the number you want, not the mileage on a map app set to "driving."

Table of Contents

• What "Flight Distance" Actually Means
• Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Routes
• South & Texas Routes
• West Coast & Cross-Country Routes
• Cross-Border: US to Canada
• How to Calculate Any Route Not on This Chart
• Worked Examples
• A Note on Accuracy
• Common Mistakes When Comparing Flight Distances
• Frequently Asked Questions
• References

What "Flight Distance" Actually Means

The shortest path between any two points on a sphere is an arc of a great circle, a circle whose center matches the center of the Earth. That arc is what an aircraft actually follows (airspace and weather permitting), not a straight line drawn on a flat map, and not the winding path of a highway.

All the figures in the chart below use the great-circle (Haversine) method, the same baseline calculation airlines use for route planning. For any two airports, not just the ones on this list, the Flight Distance Calculator works this out instantly, along with estimated flight time, CO₂ per passenger, and the timezone gap between the two cities.

You don't need to run that by hand. What matters is what it represents: latitude and longitude for both airports, fed through a formula that treats the Earth as a sphere with a radius of 6,371 km, producing the shortest possible distance between them. Every distance below comes from exactly that calculation, verified against real published airport coordinates.

The tables below list every route in three units: kilometers, statute miles, and nautical miles. Kilometers and statute miles are the two most familiar units for everyday travelers, but nautical miles show up constantly in aviation because 1 nautical mile equals 1 minute of latitude, a convenient relationship for navigation math that neither kilometers nor statute miles share. A pilot filing a flight plan, and the air traffic controllers who route that flight, both typically think in nautical miles, even on a domestic US route where every passenger on board is thinking in statute miles instead.

Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Routes

Chicago sits far enough inland that its flight distance to the East Coast doesn't change much between nearby airports. Washington DC and Baltimore, only about 30 miles apart on the ground, are within 15 km of each other in air distance from Chicago. That's a useful sanity check when a route search shows very different driving times for airports that are, in the air, practically identical: the ground distance between two nearby airports barely moves the total once you're flying to somewhere far away.

South & Texas Routes

Dallas to Houston is the shortest route on this list by a wide margin. At 225 miles in the air, it's closer to a regional hop than a cross-country flight, which is part of why it's one of the busiest short-haul corridors in the country: short enough to make flying and driving genuinely comparable options for a lot of travelers.

West Coast & Cross-Country Routes

California-to-Hawaii routes are the longest domestic flight distances in the country, and they're a good example of why the departure airport matters: San Diego to Honolulu runs about 57 miles longer than Los Angeles to Honolulu, purely because of where San Diego sits relative to Hawaii on the great circle. Two airports 120 miles apart on the mainland don't necessarily stay 120 miles apart in their distance to a destination 2,500 miles away, the geometry of a curved Earth doesn't work that simply.

Cross-Border: US to Canada

New York to Toronto is short enough that it's a genuine toss-up between flying and driving for a lot of travelers. The air distance is only 365 miles, less than a quarter of the Boston-to-Houston route above, which is why this corridor supports frequent, short shuttle-style flights alongside a perfectly viable 8-hour drive.

How to Calculate Any Route Not on This Chart

This chart covers 16 popular US and cross-border routes, but that's a small slice of the roughly 250 major airports people actually search for distances between. The good news: the method is identical for any pair, whether it's two small regional airports or a route spanning oceans.

Every airport has a published latitude and longitude, its exact position on the globe. Feed two sets of coordinates into the Haversine formula above and the result is the great-circle distance between them, accurate to within a few kilometers for any pair of airports on Earth. The Flight Distance Calculator does exactly this: type a city name or airport code for both ends of the route, and it returns distance in km, miles, and nautical miles, plus an estimated flight time and CO₂ figure, all computed in your browser.

If you're weighing whether to fly or drive a specific route yourself, once you know the air distance you can compare it against the actual road trip: the driving distance is almost always longer, sometimes dramatically so around lakes, mountain ranges, or international borders, and the Fuel Efficiency Calculator turns that driving distance into an estimated fuel cost for the trip.

Worked Examples

Example 1: Dallas to Houston (Shortest Route on This List)

DFW coordinates: 32.90°N, 97.04°W. IAH coordinates: 29.99°N, 95.34°W.

Great-circle distance: 362 km (225 mi, 195 nm). At 900 km/h cruise speed, raw air time is under 25 minutes, short enough that the 45-minute taxi-and-boarding buffer used for short routes makes up most of the total scheduled time. This is a genuine regional hop, not a cross-country flight.

Example 2: Chicago to Boston

ORD coordinates: 41.97°N, 87.91°W. BOS coordinates: 42.37°N, 71.01°W.

Great-circle distance: 1,391 km (864 mi, 751 nm). This route runs almost due east along a similar line of latitude, which is why the distance tracks closely with the longitude difference alone, a pattern that doesn't hold for routes running more north-south or diagonally.

Example 3: Los Angeles to Chicago (Cross-Country)

LAX coordinates: 33.94°N, 118.41°W. ORD coordinates: 41.97°N, 87.91°W.

Great-circle distance: 2,802 km (1,741 mi, 1,513 nm). Unlike the Chicago-Boston route, this one moves substantially in both latitude and longitude, Chicago sits noticeably further north than Los Angeles, which is exactly the kind of diagonal route where a flat-map straight line would understate the true curvature of the path.

Example 4: San Diego to Honolulu (Longest Domestic Route Here)

SAN coordinates: 32.73°N, 117.19°W. HNL coordinates: 21.32°N, 157.92°W.

Great-circle distance: 4,200 km (2,610 mi, 2,268 nm). This is the longest domestic flight distance in the entire comparison, entirely over open ocean with no diversion airports along most of the route, which is why aircraft flying it need ETOPS (extended-range twin-engine) certification.

Example 5: New York to Toronto (Cross-Border)

JFK coordinates: 40.64°N, 73.78°W. YYZ coordinates: 43.68°N, 79.62°W.

Great-circle distance: 588 km (365 mi, 318 nm). International borders don't change the physics of a great-circle calculation at all, the formula only cares about coordinates, but they do add customs and immigration time that isn't part of the flight-distance number itself, worth remembering when comparing a short international hop against an equally short domestic one.

A Note on Accuracy

Every figure in this article uses the great-circle (Haversine) method, the same shortest-path-on-a-sphere calculation airlines use as their baseline for route planning. Actual flown distance is typically 2 to 8 percent longer than the great-circle figure, because of air traffic routing, standard departure and arrival procedures, holding patterns, and weather deviations around storms or turbulence.

That gap breaks down into a few distinct causes, not one single factor. Standard instrument departures and arrivals, the published procedures aircraft follow leaving and entering busy airspace, rarely point straight at the destination: they're designed around noise abatement, terrain, and separation from other traffic using the same airport. En route, aircraft generally follow designated airways and oceanic track systems rather than a freeform great-circle line, partly for air traffic control simplicity and partly because the fastest actual path accounts for winds aloft, which can shift a flight's optimal routing well off the geometric shortest path. On a short domestic hop like Dallas to Houston, none of this adds much distance, there's barely enough length for routing to meaningfully deviate. On a long-haul route like San Diego to Honolulu, even a small percentage adds real kilometers.

For a quick planning estimate or a general sense of how far apart two cities are, great-circle distance is the right number, and it's what every airline, mapping tool, and distance calculator uses as the standard baseline. It just isn't a promise that your specific flight will cover exactly that many kilometers gate to gate. For flight time, CO₂ estimates, and airport-by-airport detail on any of the more than 250 airports not listed in this chart, the Flight Distance Calculator covers all of it.

Common Mistakes When Comparing Flight Distances

Confusing flight distance with driving distance. The two numbers can differ enormously, especially around lakes, mountain ranges, or when a direct road route simply doesn't exist. Always check which one a source is actually reporting before comparing routes.

Assuming a straight line on a flat map matches the real flight path. A flat map distorts distance and direction, especially at higher latitudes. The real shortest path curves toward the poles relative to what a straight line on a Mercator-style map would suggest, which is why transatlantic and transpacific routes look like they're bulging north on a flight tracker.

Treating great-circle distance as the exact distance flown. It's a baseline, not a guarantee. Real flights run 2 to 8 percent longer due to routing and weather, so a great-circle figure is best used for comparison and planning, not as a promise of the exact distance an aircraft will log.

Assuming nearby airports produce identical distances to every destination. Two airports close together on the ground, like Washington Dulles and Reagan National, can still show a meaningfully different distance to a far-away destination, because a small difference in starting coordinates compounds differently depending on the direction and length of the route.

Mixing up miles, kilometers, and nautical miles without converting. A distance of "2,610" means something very different depending on the unit: 2,610 miles is the San Diego to Honolulu route, but 2,610 km would be closer to the Boston to Houston distance. Always check which unit a figure is quoted in before comparing it to another source.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between flight distance and driving distance?

Flight distance is the great-circle distance, the straight-line shortest path between two airports on the curved surface of the Earth. Driving distance follows actual roads and is almost always longer, since a car has to go around lakes, mountains, and cities rather than cutting straight across. The gap can be small for short regional routes or enormous for routes separated by major geographic obstacles.

Why does a flight path look curved on a flat map?

A flat map distorts distance and direction, especially away from the equator. The true shortest path between two points on a sphere, the great circle, often looks curved when projected onto a flat map even though it is genuinely the shortest possible route. This is why long-haul flights between, say, the US and Europe appear to arc up toward Greenland rather than running in a straight east-west line.

Is flight distance the same as "as the crow flies" distance?

Yes. "As the crow flies" is a common way of describing the same concept as great-circle distance: the straight-line distance between two points, ignoring roads, terrain, or any obstacles. It is exactly the number this chart and the Flight Distance Calculator provide.

How much longer is the actual flown distance than the great-circle distance?

Typically 2 to 8 percent longer. Actual flight paths deviate from the pure great-circle route because of air traffic control routing, standard departure and arrival procedures, designated airways, and weather deviations around storms or turbulence. Great-circle distance is the planning baseline, not a guarantee of the exact distance any specific flight logs.

What is the difference between miles, kilometers, and nautical miles for flight distance?

All three measure the same physical distance, just in different units. One nautical mile equals about 1.852 km or 1.151 statute miles. Airlines and air traffic control commonly use nautical miles because 1 nautical mile equals 1 minute of latitude, which makes it convenient for navigation math, while most travelers are more familiar with statute miles or kilometers depending on their country.

Why do pilots and airlines use nautical miles instead of regular miles?

Because a nautical mile is tied directly to the Earth's geometry: 1 nautical mile equals 1 minute of arc of latitude. That makes it straightforward to convert between a distance on a chart and a position in degrees and minutes, which is genuinely useful for navigation in a way that statute miles or kilometers are not.

What is the shortest domestic US flight distance on this chart?

Dallas to Houston (DFW to IAH) at 362 km, 225 miles, or 195 nautical miles, the shortest route in this comparison by a wide margin. It is closer to a regional hop than a cross-country flight, which is part of why it is one of the busiest short-haul corridors in the country.

What is the longest domestic US flight distance on this chart?

San Diego to Honolulu (SAN to HNL) at 4,200 km, 2,610 miles, or 2,268 nautical miles, entirely over open ocean. California-to-Hawaii routes are the longest domestic flight distances in the country, more than 11 times longer than the shortest route on this list.

Does wind or weather change the flight distance, or just the flight time?

Wind and weather affect flight time, not the great-circle distance itself, which is a fixed geometric calculation based only on the two airports' coordinates. A strong tailwind shortens the time it takes to cover that distance; a headwind lengthens it. Actual routing around storms can add real distance to a specific flight, which is part of why flown distance typically runs a few percent longer than the great-circle figure.

Can I calculate the flight distance between any two cities, not just the ones in this chart?

Yes. This chart covers 16 popular routes, but the same great-circle calculation works for any pair of airports on Earth. The Flight Distance Calculator covers more than 250 major airports worldwide and returns distance in km, miles, and nautical miles instantly, along with estimated flight time and CO₂ per passenger.

Why do two nearby airports sometimes show different flight distances to the same destination?

Even airports close together on the ground can produce a noticeably different distance to a far-away destination, because a small difference in starting coordinates compounds differently depending on the route's direction and length. Washington DC's two airports, Reagan National and Dulles, are a good real-world example of this effect on longer routes.

References

• Great-circle distance, Wikipedia: derivation and properties of the Haversine formula used for every distance in this article.
• International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): the UN aviation agency whose great-circle distance conventions form the baseline used across the airline industry for route planning.
• OurAirports data: open airport database providing the IATA codes and coordinates used to compute every route distance in this article.