Surfing the Jet Stream

Anyone who has ever flown from America to Europe has probably noticed that the outward flight usually takes considerably less time than the return journey. The reason is the jet stream - fast-moving winds high in the atmosphere that generally blow from west to east. Flying east, aircraft can get a significant push from these winds, while flying west means battling against them.

The same phenomenon affects flights to Hawaii, and Flight Map from HawaiiTravelers lets you explore exactly how much extra time the winds appear to add to the journey.

Flight Map uses an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on Honolulu to plot straight-line flight paths from Hawaii's capital to 68 other airports. This means that distances from Honolulu are preserved, while the direction from Honolulu to each airport is also maintained. The result is less like a conventional world map and more like a giant compass centred on Hawaii, with the routes radiating outwards in their true directions.

Select any airport on the map and you can compare the two journeys. The map shows the median flight time for flights in each direction, based on flight data collected between January 1 and June 30, 2026. This lets you see how much longer a typical flight to Honolulu takes than the return journey. So you can immediately see not only which routes are longest, but where the difference between flying out and flying back is greatest.

The results confirm that the jet stream affects flights to Hawaii in much the same way as it affects transatlantic flights. The difference is that Hawaii lies to the west of the continental US, so the effect is reversed. Instead of getting a tailwind on the outward journey, flights from the US to Hawaii are generally flying against the prevailing west-to-east winds and therefore take longer. On the return journey, aircraft can take advantage of those winds, making the flight home a lot quicker.