Flying from Sydney to Auckland?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Sydney to Auckland?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Sydney to Auckland?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Sydney → Auckland
A medium flight from Australia to New Zealand. Auckland is 2 hours ahead. Remember to put your watch forward when you land.
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
| 3,169 km / 1,969 mi | |
| 5,317 km / 3,304 mi | |
| 706 km / 439 mi |
The city of sails
Auckland sits on a narrow isthmus between two harbors, the Waitemata and the Manukau, dotted with dozens of dormant volcanic cones that still shape its skyline and parks. There is no direct rail link to the airport; the main public option is a bus connection to Puhinui Station, where it meets the suburban rail network, while taxis and ride-hailing cover the rest. It's New Zealand's largest city by far, the country's commercial center even though Wellington is the capital. Traffic across the isthmus's harbor bridges can be heavy at peak times, and ferries are a genuinely useful way to reach some harborside suburbs.
Surrounding hubs
| 4,094 km / 2,544 mi | |
| 4,131 km / 2,567 mi | |
| 1,860 km / 1,156 mi |
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.
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.
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.
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 →
Notes from the product.
Small updates, route observations, and clearer explanations for how the app keeps evolving.
Type less, wait less, wonder more
Airport search now understands metro codes and old city names, FlightSide loads noticeably faster, and a new Feeling lucky button chooses a flight for anyone without one in mind.
A closer look at the route, not just the seat
FlightSide now shows the two cities and key details about the flight alongside the seat recommendation: confirm you picked the right airports, read the time change off two clocks, and check the return leg.
It's all about the sun (after all)
Not all sunlight reaches the side windows. FlightSide now weighs the sun’s angle to the cabin and shows twilight along the route.