Maybe they got thrown off by not paying attention to the dates and just checking out the departure and arrival times without considering the dates, but nowadays it seems quite common for itineraries to indicate flight/trip duration time in hours and minutes.

Even people ok with naming and locating countries on a globe or map may lack knowledge of flight speeds and even of actual distances on a globe or map to understand how long it takes to get around. The price of limited experience, limited knowledge or both of those. And being highly educated and professional in one or more area doesn’t preclude possibly being ignorant of what some of us here consider to be basic geographic and travel matters.