Flightradar : UAE211
 

Admittedly I don't spend much time on this, but is the route being taken by UAE211 from Dubai to Houston normal? Is a route over Svalbard really optimising fuel costs????

How is this question even remotely related to BA or BAEC?

DXB-LYR-IAH is about 2% (200mi) further than DXB-IAH direct, but perhaps there may be more favourable winds (or less unfavourable winds).
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=dxb-iah;dxb-lyr-iah
The map projection used on FR24 does make it look like the route taken is a lot longer than the GC distance for polar routes.

Short answer: Yes and yes

Seems so....don't forget the world is a sphere (well tangerine) not a flat map so going over the top is actually sorter....

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=D...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

Great tool thanks for that, I guess the fact that I got a great answer quickly proves it was the right place to post it ;)

I always forget to order a nice globe for myself...

FR suggests it is a reasonable (800 mile) deviation from the great circle route, which could be to do with avoiding headwinds or storms. In this case there is a the strong jet stream just south of Iceland at the moment (the close isobars in the surface pressure charts are a good indicator: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/w...ime=1443614400). It's easier to go north from DXB; from Europe flights are just heading a more southerly route.

As this is way off-topic for the BA forum, I'll move this over to Emirates.

Hi OP,

Welcome to the EK forum - most, if not all of EKs DXB-North America flights take a polar route: it is in fact the shortest route (just about!).

When you cut the queue at a supermarket and get served faster, does that prove that you did the right thing overall?