it never really made sense to me how you could travel the same distance in less time if the airplane isn’t going any faster. how is the time reduced?
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Wind speed as noted and also the plane can often go faster. Cruising speed is selected for fuel economy. The plane can sometimes get there quicker if the cost of being late exceeds the cost of fuel.
> it never really made sense to me how you could travel the same distance in less time if the airplane isn’t going any faster. how is the time reduced?
It *is* going faster, or it can be. If the winds are at your back, your speed across the ground is higher even if your speed relative to the air around you is the same. You might be able to change altitude to get a more favorable wind speed/direction. Also, aircraft have a variable throttle, so sometimes they just increase how fast they fly, typically at the cost of increased gas consumption. It can be better paying the gas to not have to hold other aircraft or put a bunch of people transferring into hotels if an aircraft/aircrew are going to be late.
Finally, sometimes they can take a shorter route between two points. Aircraft rarely fly a perfect direct line between two airpots, and if air traffic is light they may end up being able to cut down on the total length they have to travel.
To add to this, flight plans aren’t really planned directly, navigation is via a series of waypoints. The estimated flight time is based on the filed flight plan. However, many times ATC will clear flights to bypass a bunch of waypoints and fly directly through their sector, and this will shave off time too.
Commercial airplanes file and follow flight plans that are like highways in the sky. They go from one ground fix to the next to the next. Be This keeps the aircraft tidy and arranged in the sky. To save time the airplanes can go directly to a further fixed point that skip some zig-zags of intermediate fixes.
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