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Flying from Phoenix to Las Vegas?

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

About this route

PhoenixLas Vegas

A short flight within United States. Same local time zone at both ends.

Route type Domestic
Distance 411 km / 255 mi
Distance class Short-haul
Direction Northwestbound
Est. duration About 1h
Time change No change

Departing from

PHX

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Location Phoenix, United States
Time zone MST · UTC−7
Current time

The Valley of the Sun

Phoenix anchors a wide, flat desert valley ringed by mountains, one of the hottest big cities in the country and still growing quickly. Summer heat is intense enough to shape daily life for months, pushing outdoor plans to early morning or evening. The metro grew up almost entirely around the car, with a single light-rail line cutting through downtown and Tempe but reaching only a fraction of the sprawl. Plan around the heat as much as the distances.

Surrounding hubs

818 km / 508 mi
968 km / 601 mi
1,046 km / 650 mi

Arriving at

LAS

Harry Reid International Airport

Location Las Vegas, United States
Time zone PDT · UTC−7
Current time

Sin City

Las Vegas sits in a desert valley ringed by mountains, with the Strip's resort corridor forming a single dense spine surrounded by a much larger, ordinary, car-built city. Most visitors never see far beyond that corridor and the older casino blocks of downtown a few miles north. A short monorail runs along the Strip itself, but nothing rail-based reaches outside it, so getting anywhere off the Strip means a car, taxi, or rideshare. Summers are extremely hot and dry.

Surrounding hubs

592 km / 368 mi
665 km / 413 mi
1,009 km / 627 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

Notes from the product.

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