What you fly over from Barcelona to Los Angeles

Countries in flying order

1. 1SpainLanded
2. 2FranceFlown over
3. 3United KingdomFlown over
4. 4IrelandFlown over
5. 5GreenlandFlown over
6. 6CanadaFlown overManitoba · Newfoundland and Labrador · Nunavut · Ontario · Quebec
7. 7United States of AmericaLandedCalifornia · Montana · North Dakota · Nevada · Utah · Wyoming

Estimated great-circle route with the usual corridor adjustment; the actual flight varies with wind and traffic. The return flight crosses the same countries in reverse.

What you see from the window

The Pyrenees on departure, then the Bay of Biscay. Over southern England and Ireland the Atlantic begins, and mid-flight the southern tip of Greenland appears: fjords, ice and, in winter, icebergs. Then Labrador, Hudson Bay and the plains of North Dakota and Montana, the Rockies over Wyoming and Utah, and the Nevada desert before the descent into Los Angeles.

The usual aircraft

This route is usually flown by Airbus A330, Airbus A350. At cruise the cabin is held at a pressure equivalent to about 6 000 ft (1 829 m) of altitude: that is why your ears pop on the way down.

The shortest path between two points on Earth is a great-circle arc: that is why a flight from Barcelona to Los Angeles goes so far north, up to Greenland, and looks like a detour on a flat map.