Which Flight Flies Over the Most Countries?

Among long-haul flights that really fly this way in 2026, the answer is EgyptAir's Cairo to Los Angeles: on the shortest line between the two, it passes over 15 countries and territories in just under 16 hours. But the most surprising record is a short one. London to Paphos, in Cyprus, flies over 16 countries in about four and a half hours, and London City to Thessaloniki manages 15 in about three.

We found them by running 8,895 real nonstop routes, every one on this site's airline and airport pages, through our What countries do I fly over? tool, which traces a flight's path and lists every country beneath it in order. Then we removed the routes whose shortest line crosses airspace airlines avoid today, because a record nobody can fly is not much of a record.

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The Flights That Fly Over the Most Countries

Here is the ranking. The count includes the countries you take off from and land in, and every one in between. Click a flight to see the full list in the tool.

Four of the nine take less than five hours. Flight time has surprisingly little to do with it: what matters is how many borders sit on the line.

Why It's Always the Balkans

Look at the short flights in that table and the same names keep coming up: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania. Draw a line from western Europe to Greece, Turkey or Cyprus and it has to cross the Balkans, and the Balkans are packed with small countries. Much of it was a single country, Yugoslavia, until 1991. Today it is seven, counting Kosovo.

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The result is that a three-hour hop can rack up more countries than a flight across the Atlantic. London City to Thessaloniki passes over the UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Greece. Paris to Pristina even clips Liechtenstein, for less than a minute.

The one you can fly any day of the year is Amsterdam to Thessaloniki: 11 countries in under three hours, with easyJet or Transavia.

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The Long-Haul Record: Cairo to Los Angeles

EgyptAir started flying nonstop from Cairo to Los Angeles in May 2026, its longest route ever. The shortest line between the two goes north, not west: up over Greece and the Balkans, across central Europe and Denmark, clips the Faroe Islands, crosses Iceland and Greenland, then down through Canada to California.

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That is 15 countries and territories, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, both part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Some are brief: the line crosses a sliver of the United Kingdom in about a minute. Others last hours, with Canada at more than two.

Turkish Airlines comes close twice. Istanbul to Mexico City crosses 14 countries, through Romania, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland before the Atlantic. Istanbul to Bogotá also crosses 14, taking the southern way: through the Balkans, Italy, Spain and Portugal, then 6,660 km of ocean.

Straight Down the Length of Africa

Two flights between Europe and southern Africa cross 13 countries each, most of them in a single sweep over the Sahara and the Congo basin. TAP's Lisbon to Maputo crosses Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, both Congos, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa before landing in Mozambique. Air Europa's new Johannesburg to Madrid flight, launched in June 2026, takes a similar path north and spends more than two hours above Algeria alone.

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The Shortest Line Versus the Real One

If you only look at the shortest line, the record belongs to a different flight. Bangkok to Zurich would fly over 20 countries: Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and more.

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No airline flies it that way in 2026. The line runs through Afghanistan, Russia and Ukraine, and SWISS, like every European airline, cannot use Russian airspace. Of the 50 routes with the most countries on their shortest line, 41 cross airspace that airlines currently avoid, which is why we left them out of the ranking. Real flights detour around closed airspace and follow airways rather than straight lines, so on any given day a flight can add or drop a small country. We explain why in our guide to why flights don't fly in a straight line.

The Flights That Fly Over Nothing

At the other end of the scale are the long flights with almost no land beneath them at all. San Francisco to Singapore is the most extreme: for 17 and a half hours, the only land under the line is about five minutes of the Philippines and Malaysia, in the last three hours. The longest stretch without land lasts over 14 hours.

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Los Angeles to Sydney and Newark to Cape Town are the same story across the Pacific and the Atlantic. Each crosses more than 12,000 km of ocean, with no country in between at all.

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How Many Countries Does Your Flight Fly Over?

Enter any two airports in the What countries do I fly over? tool and it lists every country under the shortest line, in order, with how long you spend over each one and the longest stretch with no land below. It is a good way to know what you are looking at from the window seat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which flight flies over the most countries?
Among long-haul flights that really fly this way in 2026, EgyptAir's Cairo to Los Angeles passes over 15 countries and territories. On the shortest line alone, Bangkok to Zurich would cross 20, but it runs through airspace airlines avoid.

Which short flight crosses the most countries?
London to Paphos, in Cyprus, flies over 16 countries in about four and a half hours. London City to Thessaloniki crosses 15 in about three, most of them in the Balkans.

Is there a long flight that doesn't fly over any country?
Almost. San Francisco to Singapore spends 17 and a half hours almost entirely over the Pacific, with only about five minutes over the Philippines and Malaysia. Los Angeles to Sydney and Newark to Cape Town cross no country in between at all.

Do airlines need permission to fly over a country?
Yes. The right to overfly comes from international agreements, and airlines pay each country's air traffic service for the airspace they use. A country can also close its airspace, as several have since 2022.

How can I see which countries my flight flies over?
Enter your departure and arrival airports in our free What countries do I fly over? tool. It lists every country under the shortest line, in order, with the time spent over each.

Sources

Country counts, times and distances are our own calculations with the What countries do I fly over? tool, on the shortest line between the airports, for the 8,895 nonstop routes on this site's airline and airport pages. Flight times are estimates from distance. Real flights follow airways that change from day to day, so treat the counts as what the shortest line crosses, not a guarantee for every flight.

• Airspace: OPSGROUP on Middle East airspace in October 2026.
• EgyptAir Cairo to Los Angeles: FlyMag on the May 2026 launch.
• Air Europa Johannesburg to Madrid: Air Journal on the June 2026 launch.
• TAP Lisbon to Maputo: AeroRoutes on the switch to nonstop.

A flight's country count says more about the map than about the flight. Three hours over the old Yugoslavia beats a whole ocean.