British Airways sets new subsonic route record

LONDON - Strong North Atlantic jet stream pushed British Airways Boeing 747-400 to a route record. An Airbus A350 from Virgin was almost as fast.

4 hours and 56 minutes: no commcercial flight, except for the Concorde, has ever crossed the pond faster than BA112 on the route from New York JFK to London Heathrow. Under normal conditions, flight times range from six and six and a half hours for the busy route.


According to Flightradar24 tracking data, an unusually strong jet stream over Greenland gives most flights "tailwind" in east-bound direction: an Airbus A350 from Virgin Atlantic was only one minute slower on Sunday on the route from New York to London.

On west-bound flights some airlines route to more northerly corridors to avoid the jet stream. BA112 arrvided in London 17 minutes faster than the previous record holder: in January 2018, it took a crew from Norwegian 5 hours and 13 minutes to fly from New York to Gatwick.