romanuzburator

Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I am a fan of flying on airplanes in real life, as well as flying airplanes in simulators.
I flew on the British Airways flight "BA0008" from Tokyo to London. Left Haneda Airport on January 19 (2024) and landed on Heathrow Airport on January 19.
I was quite excited to fly for the first time over North America and/or the Arctic Ocean as I had noticed this flight's route had been taking eastbound, with tipical paths over the Pacific Ocean, Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland etc.
However, the flight on January 19 was an exception and flew westbound, over Asia, East Europe etc. I also checked online flight trackers and indeed BA0008 had flewn eastbound for many days before and after January 19 😅
Does anyone have any idea why this happened or how can I research or where else I could ask about this (other than just Googleing)?

c1223

Welcome to FT.

For obvious reasons BA are currently not flying over Russia. This means the routing is relatively inefficient. Usually the best route for the winds on BA8 from HND to LHR is to head east over Canada as that usually results in the strongest tailwind. As you noted, occasionally it flys back westbound instead. It is almost always due to the prevailing winds. Edit: teaches me to believe everything I read...

Waterhorse

It’s probably due to the weather at the ETOPS alternates in Alaska and Northern Canada not meeting the requirements, it’s hardly ever due to the prevailing winds.

CKBA

Certainly interesting route - same on the 18th Jan.
(Last time I did that route westbound had a beautiful trip running along the northern coast of Russia - sunset virtually all the way...).

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

I flew on JAL 43 HND- LHR on the 20th and we went east ( and north- last time I looked at the map we were north of alaska ( 83 north). I was in a middle seat so no view ( but in JAL F so excellent flight)- flight time 15hr 20 ( weaker tailwinds according to the crew)

Regards

TBS

Howard Long

Another bit of trivia, for about a week after the tragic JAL accident at HND on 2nd January, while 34R/16L (the longest runway) remained closed JL41 & JL43 to LHR & JL45 to CDG diverted to either NRT or NGO for a technical stop to load up with sufficient fuel to do the polar route, leading to a couple of hours of extra delay in both directions.

I took the JL43 the day after 34R/16L reopened on 8th January, and noted that there was no obvious evidence of the event ever occurring.

I concluded that 15 hours in JAL F has a lot to recommend it.

CPH-Flyer

JL41, JL43, and NH211 (all HND LHR) flew east and north on the 19th, so weather was not bad enough to prevent them from flying the polar route. I guess BA had other operational reasons for the change.

Sigwx

Waterhorse is spot on. The only other reason is volcanic activity in Kamchatka peninsula or the Aleutian chain.

CPH-Flyer

I am sure BA does not take the longer and thus more fuel consuming route for the fun of it. But weather and volcanoes are probably not the reason, as all other HND/NRT flights to Europe that day took the route via the Pacific and north of Canada. With the exception of ITA to Rome and Turkish to Istanbul, but they always take the western route.

So whatever operational reasons BA had, they affected no one else.

Sigwx

Which most likely comes down to the ETOPS certification which is operator and type dependant. BA 787s are 180 mins. Pretty sure the JAL 787s and ANA 77Ws plying the route are 330 minutes, this allowed for a wider spread of alternates and makes routings less restrictive.

CPH-Flyer

Yeah, difference in ETOPS certification could indeed explain it.

Air France, Finnair, Lufthansa, KLM also flew the northern route that day. Though one Lufthansa flight is a 747-8, so diversion range is less of an issue for that one. Swiss and SAS did not fly on the 19th.

AndyBTravels

Could North Korean missiles
impact as well?

CPH-Flyer

It would probably be more likely on the western route than the eastern route. As most of them seems to fall in the Sea of Japan or the Yellow Sea. Though a few are crossing Japan, and fall in to the sea east of Japan.

LapLap

There were significant volcanic eruptions* close to the Eastern boundary of Russia in the later part of 2023, this prevented flights between Tokyo and London from going East and North above the Bering Sea. For a few days all the flights towards London headed West through Turkey and on to Europe.

* https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/im...suing%20months.

Swanhunter

Regrettable use of the word impact