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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At all stages of flight planes must be less than X hours from an airport in case of emergencies. The number of hours depends on the plane.
When crossing the Pacific, there are airports just for this in Alaska and Hawaïi, and on the Atlantic side you have Iceland on the middle helping out.
Over the poles you have long streches without any airports, so this is avoided.
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