Where Should We Meet? The Fairest Airport Between Two Cities
- LondonNonstop flights11h 24m
- SydneyNonstop flights11h 27m
Other fair places to meet
| Airport | LHR | SYD | Apart | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Chengdu TFU | 10h 57m | 11h 20m | 23m |
| 3 | Sapporo CTS | 11h 39m | 11h 14m | 25m |
| 4 | Seoul ICN | 11h 35m | 10h 56m | 39m |
| 5 | Malé MLE | 11h 10m | 11h 55m | 45m |
Flight times are estimated from the great circle distance and an average cruising speed, as in the distance calculator. Meeting points are well-connected airports from our route data; a nonstop badge means we know an airline flies that route, and a missing one does not mean there is none.
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Long-distance couples, friends scattered across continents, family on both sides of an ocean: sooner or later someone asks where to meet so that nobody gets the long flight. Put in where each of you flies from and this finds the airports that split the trip most fairly, with how long each of you would fly and which of the routes are flown nonstop.
How It Works
- Enter the airport each person flies from, by code or by city name. Add a third or fourth person if you are meeting as a group.
- Choose what fair means: everyone flying about the same time, or the least flying between you.
- Read the answer: the best place to meet, each person's flight time, and whether the routes are flown nonstop.
- Compare the alternatives in the table and on the map, in case the best one is not your kind of place.
Why the Middle Is Not Halfway
The fairest airport is rarely the point halfway along the map:
- Planes fly great circles, so the true middle of a long trip is often far from where it looks on a flat map: between London and Sydney it is in Sri Lanka, not over the Indian Ocean.
- The halfway point is usually in the sea or the desert. Only airports people actually fly to count, so the answer moves to the nearest well-connected city.
- Every flight carries a fixed overhead for take-off, climb, descent and taxiing, so two short flights take longer than one long one of the same total distance.
- With three or more people nowhere is equal for everyone, so the tool looks for the place where the longest flight is as short as it can be.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does it decide which airport is fairest?
In equal mode, it looks at every well-connected airport, keeps those where the longest flight is within an hour of the shortest it could be, and picks the one where the flight times are closest to each other. In least-flying mode it picks the airport with the smallest total flight time between you.
Are there direct flights to the meeting point?
Where we know an airline flies a route nonstop, the tool says so. Our route data covers the main airports and airlines, not every route in the world, so a missing badge does not mean there is no nonstop: check with the airlines before you book.
Can more than two people use it?
Yes, up to four. With three or more cities there is rarely a place that is equal for everyone, so the tool picks the one where nobody has a much longer trip than the rest.
How accurate are the flight times?
They are estimated from the great circle distance and an average cruising speed, the same as in the flight distance calculator, so they are good to within a few minutes. Real schedules also depend on winds, routing and connections.
Why is my own city not suggested?
Meeting at one person's home airport needs no tool, so the people's own airports are left out. If you want to compare it, the flight time between the two of you is shown next to the answer.
Split the trip fairly, then put both flights on the map.