"See actual flight paths with flightpaths.com"
Weather, politics and local regulations can affect the choice of airspace and flight corridors. Flightpaths.com lets you see the real flight paths and compare passenger airlines and flight times simplified on an interactive map.
Flights from London (LHR), United Kingdom to Shanghai (PVG), China illustrated on a map. Based on 20 recorded flights, the distance can vary between 5786 and 6792 miles.
When traveling from Heathrow in London to the main airport in Shanghai the flight paths vary between different airlines – learn more about the differences and see our interactive route maps.
The great-circle distance, in other words the shortest distance possible, between the two major airports London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong is about 9,200 kilometers. With that being said, the actual flight paths used by the airlines operating on this route differ from this distance.
There are currently two airlines who operate direct flights between the two airports – British Airways and China Eastern. But as you can tell from our maps, these two airlines choose quite different paths on the route from London to Shanghai. To learn more about the actual flight paths, take a look at the lists below. Here we present the exact flight time used in each country by the airlines offering this route.
Azerbaijan
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
China
Czech Republic
France
Georgia
Germany
Hungary
Kazakhstan
Romania
United Kingdom
Over water
Denmark
Estonia
Germany
Mongolia
Russia
Sweden
United Kingdom
Over water
Over water
United Kingdom
Germany
China
Russia
Denmark
Sweden
Estonia
Romania
Kazakhstan
Hungary
Austria
Belgium
Azerbaijan
Mongolia
Czech Republic
Georgia
Netherlands
Bulgaria
France
Turkey
Ukraine
So how come there is such a big difference between the flight path chosen by British Airways and China Eastern? In general there are several reasons behind how different airlines choose their routes, with the common goal to always minimize the flight time and distance. Circumstances that can affect the flight path are for example weather conditions and certain flight corridors. However the largest impact on the flight paths is usually on-going conflicts on the ground, causing airlines both to avoid and in some cases be banned from the airspace of certain countries.
In the case of the flight between London, United Kingdom, and Shanghai, China, the large difference in the flight paths between the operating airlines has to do with the on-going conflicts in both Russia/Ukraine and parts of the Middle East. In February 2025 the entire airspace in Ukraine is closed for civil flights. When it comes to Russian airspace the area is currently not being used by most European airlines, including British Airways, caused by a ban against countries supporting Ukraine. On the other hand many Asian airlines, such as China Eastern, still use Russian airspace on their flights. Distance wise this gives the Chinese airline a flight path that is more than 1,000 kilometers shorter than the path used by the British flag carrier. As you can tell from the map at the top of the page, British Airways also chooses to avoid certain parts of the Middle East due to the on-going conflicts in the area.
Note! This route was also offered by Virgin Atlantic until October 2024.