Why is Europe to Miami route same as route to more northerly airports?
 

In addition to the GC routing mentioned above, it all depends on the time of year and how the jetstream is moving. In these cases where a Europe to MIA flight flies down the east coast, taking a more southerly route would most likely end up flying head on into the jetstream, and thus an even longer flight time, more fuel burn, etc.

They don't

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f...ba207#1fd76b1c

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f...ba117#1fd755fd

I've definitely not always flown over the Northeast going to Europe from MIA - though I have sometimes. Madrid and Lisbon, for example, regularly route several hundred miles offshore. And because of winds, return flights are often much further south and east - I've flown over Bermuda several times ex Europe to MIA.

Fun fact for the flat-earthers....Maine is the closest US state to Africa.

Thanks for sharing, I actually had to get up and look at my globe for that one! Assuming of course, there is not some small African Island somewhere that makes this not true.

But to the OP's point, living in Miami, my most common European landing is London, we often fly right up the East Coast of the US.

Thanks!

Winds aloft as well as Great Circle routes influence routing (as well as occasional political conditions). That’s how one can fly LAX-HKG and fly up the US and Canada west coast to s.e. Alaska before making the turn towards HKG.

The spherical shortest routes (geodesics) are visually closer than a straight line on a flat map. Winds could then either bunch them together or spread them apart.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7ca291ed6d.jpg

Adding to the Great Circle Mapper detail provided by CPRich, MIA-JFK-FRA is only 113 miles farther than MIA-FRA.

Great Circle Mapper

Visual Treat: The Great Circle Route for Anchorage-Johannesburg goes right over Helsinki, Finland - not Miami.

Nah, they fell off a ways back, took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

You will also often see large variation going east vs going west, winds aloft play in quite a bit. Recall a flight to ICN that the route looked crazy in the morning when I looked at it, then captain explained the route was to avoid a 200+ headwind. Fortunately, the return trip took advantage of it, and we arrived close to 2 hours early.