Originally Posted by
Indelaware
From Europe to HNL one would not fly over any part of Asia. It is a three ocean trip - the Atlantic (specifically the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea, both parts of the Atlantic), the Arctic and the Pacific - except for departures from points in far south-western Europe for which it is a two-ocean trip (the Atlantic and the Pacific).
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=hnl-lhr.../osl/mad&DU=nm
My guess is that if DY was to fly OSL-HNL, they'd fly just a bit south of the great circle route depending upon WX and their ETOPS range, and if they wish to invest in the required cold-air gear for the crew (required in the case of an arctic landing). There are plenty of diversion airports along the way, but better on the North American side of the arctic (I've only included the principal ones with paved runways):
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=osl-hnl...ak,ome,dyr,adk
Flying over Russia would be geographically longer. Additionally, without a fuel stop, likely requires significant overflight taxes. More importantly, the ATC system is less developed on the Russian side and there are fewer diversion airports.
Thank You for the insight. This is very informative and reminds me (and others here) to really consider the shortest route in geographic terms and not confine thinking to the typical globe or map view (as this would be really flying over the arctic for the shortest route, as you've shown here, which is hard to fathom if one looks at the typical map view of the world).