Madrid to Cancún distance

Madrid to Cancún in a straight line

In a straight line, the shortest distance over the Earth’s surface, Madrid and Cancún are 7,953 km (4,942 mi) apart, 20% 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 7,418 km of sea, 93% of the way.

From Madrid, Cancún lies to the west (bearing 282°), and from Cancún, Madrid lies to the northeast. The straight line reaches Cancún on a bearing of 233°: the bearing keeps turning along the way (50° in all), which is why the shortest route looks curved on a flat map.

If the plane kept the same bearing all the way (255°, to the west), it would follow the rhumb line, the one that looks straight on a Mercator map: 8,177 km (5,081 mi), 224 km more (2.8% longer). That’s why long routes don’t look “straight” on a map: the curve is the short way.

What the route flies over

Under the straight line there are 7,418 km of sea (93%) and 535 km of land. In order, from Madrid: 275 km over Spain, 150 km over Portugal, 40.0 km over the Bahamas, and 65.0 km over the United States.

The straight line climbs to 42.0° N (at 41.9811° N, 22.5812° W), 1.6° farther north than Madrid: on a sphere that’s the short way, even if it looks like a detour on a flat map. 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 Madrid and Cancún

Halfway along the straight line, 3,977 km (2,471 mi) from each city, is the point 38.4828° N, 50.3715° W. It falls at sea; the nearest town is Witless Bay (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, pop. 1,640), 998 km away.

Time difference and flight

A direct flight would take about 10 hr 25 min. That’s an estimate: 30 minutes for takeoff, climb, descent and landing, plus the 7,953 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, Cancún is 6 hours behind Madrid; in July, 7 hours behind Madrid. It changes because they don’t switch to summer time together.

With that flight time, if you leave Madrid at 10:00, you land in Cancún around 14:25 (Cancún time) in January and around 13:25 in July.

The two cities

Cancún is 19.2° farther south than Madrid and 83.2° farther west. Madrid has 3.5 million people (INE population register, January 1, 2025) and Cancún 888,797 people (GeoNames).