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Flying from Tokyo to Sydney?

Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.

About this route

TokyoSydney

A long flight from Japan to Australia. Sydney is 1 hour ahead. Turn your watch forward before you arrive.

Route type International
Distance 7,818 km / 4,858 mi
Distance class Long-haul
Direction Southbound
Est. duration About 9h 5m
Time change Destination +1h

This route crosses the equator.

Departing from

HND

Tokyo Haneda International Airport

Location Tokyo, Japan
Time zone GMT+9 · UTC+9
Current time

The world's largest metropolis

Tokyo anchors the most populous metropolitan area on Earth, a sprawling lowland of districts that each feel like a city in their own right. It runs on an unrivaled web of trains and subways, punctual and dense, that makes a car pointless for most visitors. The center has no single heart but many, with government, business, and shopping districts spread across the rail map. Its two airports lie at very different distances from the city, so the choice matters.

City access

Haneda is the close-in airport, on Tokyo Bay just south of the city, and usually the faster arrival. Rail and monorail links reach the center in well under an hour, and it handles a growing share of international flights. If you can choose, Haneda saves time over the farther airport.

Nearby airports

60 km / 37 mi

Surrounding hubs

820 km / 510 mi
882 km / 548 mi
984 km / 611 mi

Arriving at

SYD

Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport

Location Sydney, Australia
Time zone GMT+10 · UTC+10
Current time

The harbor city

Sydney wraps around one of the world's great natural harbors, a city of inlets, beaches, and bridges rather than a single tidy grid. The Airport Link train runs directly from the airport into the city center in about 13 minutes, part of a rail network that, combined with ferries, covers the harborside suburbs well. The city sprawls much farther inland than its harbor image suggests, and those outer suburbs lean more on cars and buses than rail. Beaches, including the famous Bondi, sit close enough to the city center to be a realistic afternoon trip without a car.

Surrounding hubs

1,981 km / 1,231 mi
2,159 km / 1,342 mi
2,754 km / 1,711 mi
How it works

Find out which side of the plane to sit on.

Pick your airports, set your departure time, and you're done.

We calculate the sun's position based on your flight path and departure time, then tell you which side of the plane gets direct sun and which stays shaded. No guessing, just math.

01

Enter your flight

Pick your departure and arrival airports and set your departure time at the departure airport. FlightSide estimates the duration and you can adjust it if you know the exact schedule.

02

We track the sun along your route

Your flight path is broken into hundreds of points. At each one we check where the sun is and which side of the plane it faces.

03

You get a recommendation

Which side of the plane to sit on, left or right, depending on whether you'd rather avoid the sun or enjoy it. The percentages and the map are there if you want to see why.

Want to go deeper? Accuracy, edge cases, polar routes — see the FAQ →

Latest journal

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Small updates, route observations, and clearer explanations for how the app keeps evolving.