For example, if I were in Tangier, Morocco, and wanted to fly to Whangarei, New Zealand (the antipode on the globe) – wouldn’t it be about the same time to go up instead of across?
ETA: Thanks so much for the detailed explanations!
For those who are wondering why I picked Tangier/Whangarei, it was just a hypothetical! The-Minmus-Derp explained it perfectly: *Whangarei and Tangier airports are antipodes to the point that the runways OVERLAP in that way – if you stand on the right part if the Tangier runway, you are exactly opposite a part of the Whangarei runway, making it the farthest possible flight.*
In: 2270
They do when it makes sense to do so. There is quite a bit of traffic over the North pole or at least close to it. China to the NY/Chicago and likewise Middle East to US West Coast. The Southern hemisphere is less populated so less demand for direct flights but there are some flights that get close to Antarctica, Sydney to Santiago for example.
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