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.*
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Planes do this though – find yourself a beach ball (earth) and a piece of string (route) and you will discover what we call a great circle route.
Most plane routes do follow this, but with some variations for wind and other factors. 2-engined aircraft (which is the most common today) also have to be within a certain distance from an adequate airport, meaning some regions are out of bounds for them.
But again, the premise is that planes do exactly what you suggest – it just looks differently on a flat map – because the earth is not flat.
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