JetSetAuthority

Route · Trans-Pacific

LAX Los Angeles ⇄ HND Tokyo

Los Angeles International Airport (United States) and Tokyo Haneda International Airport (Japan): great-circle distance, estimated scheduled flight time each way, time difference and jet lag.

Distance8,812 km5,476 mi4,758 nautical miles
LAX → HND12 h 10 minestimated block time
HND → LAX10 h 10 minestimated block time
Clock change+16 hTokyo vs Los Angeles, today
Great-circle route from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo (HND)LAXLos AngelesHNDTokyo
The shortest path over the Earth’s surface (great circle), drawn on a Natural Earth projection. Real flight paths bend around weather, winds and closed airspace.

Flight time each way

LAX → HND

12 h 10 min

Estimated gate-to-gate scheduled time. Initial heading 306° (NW).

Leave Los Angeles Sat 7 Nov, 10:00 local → arrive Tokyo Sun 8 Nov, 15:10 local +1 day.

HND → LAX

10 h 10 min

Estimated gate-to-gate scheduled time. Initial heading 56° (NE).

Leave Tokyo Sat 7 Nov, 10:00 local → arrive Los Angeles Sat 7 Nov, 03:10 local.

HND-bound flights are the slower direction by about 115 minutes in our estimate: the route runs mostly east–west through latitudes where the prevailing westerly winds at cruise height are strong, so heading east rides a tailwind and heading west fights a headwind. How we estimate it.

Distance

Great-circle distance8,812 km · 5,476 mi · 4,758 nmi
Initial heading306° (NW) from LAX; 56° (NE) from HND
Farthest from the equator47.7°N — the path arcs north of both airports
Crossesthe 180th meridian (International Date Line area)
Share of the longest possible trip44% of the 20,015 km to the far side of the Earth

Time zones and jet lag

LAXAmerica/Los_Angeles — UTC−7 now; UTC−8 standard time, UTC−7 during daylight saving time
HNDAsia/Tokyo — UTC+9 now; UTC+9 all year (no daylight saving time)
DifferenceTokyo is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles today; +17 h in January and +16 h in July because daylight saving time starts and ends on different dates (or not at all).

Jet lag, flying LAX → HND. The clock change is 16 hours, but to your body that is a shift of 8 hours the other way. Your body clock has to move 8 hours later, like a westward trip. A common rule of thumb is that the body clock adjusts by roughly one time zone a day, so expect up to about 8 days to fully adjust. Shifting later (as here) is usually the easier direction; evening daylight at the destination helps. Flying the other way, the shift is reversed.

General information, not medical advice.

The two airports

Same cities, other airports

More routes from LAX and HND

Routes of a similar length

Need a different pair? The flight-time calculator works for any two of 3,245 airports. Not covered: which airlines fly this route, schedules, fares and live status — that data is proprietary and we don’t guess it.

Photos on airport pages are credited there. Estimates are rounded to 5 minutes; typical error about 13 minutes (validation).