Los Angeles to Sydney distance

Los Angeles to Sydney in a straight line

In a straight line, the shortest distance over the Earth’s surface, Los Angeles and Sydney are 7,496 miles (12,063 km) apart, 30% of the way around the Earth at the equator. That’s the geodesic on the WGS84 ellipsoid, the distance “as the crow flies”. There’s no road between them: the straight line crosses 7,477 mi of sea, over 99% of the way.

From Los Angeles, Sydney lies to the southwest (bearing 241°), and from Sydney, Los Angeles lies to the northeast.

If the plane kept the same bearing all the way (232°, to the southwest), it would follow the rhumb line, the one that looks straight on a Mercator map: 7,515 miles (12,095 km), 19.7 mi more (0.3% longer).

What the route flies over

Almost all of the straight line is over the sea: 7,477 mi of 7,496 mi.

It crosses the equator. It crosses the 180th meridian, which most of the International Date Line follows: going west across it, the calendar jumps a day ahead. Planes don’t follow the line exactly: they fly along airways, chase tailwinds and avoid closed airspace, but on long flights they stay close to it.

Halfway between Los Angeles and Sydney

Halfway along the straight line, 3,748 miles (6,032 km) from each city, is the point 0.1318° N, 163.5808° W. It falls at sea; the nearest town is Napari (Line Islands, Kiribati, pop. 194), 389 mi away.

Time difference and flight

A direct flight would take about 15 hr 35 min. That’s an estimate: 30 minutes for takeoff, climb, descent and landing, plus the 12,063 km straight line at 800 km/h (about 497 mph), a typical airliner cruising speed. Real schedules depend on wind, routing and airports, and not every pair has a direct flight. Westbound flights usually take a little longer than eastbound ones because of high-altitude winds (the jet stream).

In January, Sydney is 19 hours ahead of Los Angeles; in July, 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles. It changes because they don’t switch to summer time together (in the Southern Hemisphere, summer is in January).

With that flight time, if you leave Los Angeles at 10:00, you land in Sydney around 20:35 the next day (Sydney time) in January and around 18:35 the next day in July.

The two cities

Sydney is 67.9° farther south than Los Angeles and 90.5° farther west. Los Angeles has 3.9 million people (Census Bureau estimate for 2025) and Sydney 5.6 million people (GeoNames).