Why is it so long to Las Vegas?

Summer asked:


Maybe somebody can help me out this pickle..I flew to L.A..it was 11hours…San Francisco..just under 10 hours. Now on wednesday I go to Las Vegas..15 hours..Does anybody know why 4 whole hours have just been added onto my flight?
Flying out of London Gatwick by the way..

Leslie

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5 Responses to “Why is it so long to Las Vegas?”

1. Tom M Says:
   March 29th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

   From London you must go over the North Pole. Las Vegas is further than L.A. and SFO.

2. sarah071267 Says:
   March 30th, 2009 at 11:30 am

   I would say that you aren’t flying direct from Gatwick to LV but stopping in either LA or SF.

3. kappy Says:
   March 31st, 2009 at 11:06 pm

   I’m just guessing but it sounds like they are taking differant flight paths, I would think it was odd to because LA is only 1 hour away from vegas flight wise.

4. brix510 Says:
   April 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 am

   Usually the flights from Europe take longer when flying into Las Vegas because it picks up a lot of people on the east coast (NY, Boston, etc.). Also, these stop overs tend to be longer than those for LA or SF because large airlines that fly to europe and Vegas are decreasing in size (as opposed to European flights that stop on the east coast and fly to LA or SF). It all depends on the airline and flight path that is taken. I’m sure your flight is NOT taking a direct path, and further more it seems like there is a stop over on the east coast of the US somewhere that will be taking a bit of your time. (FYI - flight time from SF to LV is ~ 1hr 20min, LA to LV is < 1 hr).

   Plus the exact time it takes to get from NY or the boston area to LV is roughly 4 hours, dont know if that helps any. Hope this has been somewhat helpful. Good luck.

5. misunderestimated Says:
   April 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm

   Your earlier flights to the other cities were nonstop. Your flight to Las Vegas has one stop. Look at your ticket or itinerary to confirm this.

   There is only 1 scheduled daily nonstop flight from Gatwick to Vegas (Virgin Flight 43) and it has a flight time of 10 hours 15 minutes. One-stop flights are at least 15 hours, but they can be as much as 21 hours, so you should consider yourself lucky. And in your case, at least you won’t have to endure the hassle of changing planes.

   To correct some misinformation in the first answer: The shortest distances (known as the Great Circle distances) from LGW to SFO, LAX and LAS are 5392 miles, 5480 miles and 5253 miles, respectively. So, from London, Las Vegas is NOT further than Los Angeles!

   And the Great Circle path certainly does not go over the north pole. It doesn’t even go north of the Arctic Circle. (See: )