The “straight” route from Los Angeles to Tokyo bends north
Commercial flights do cross the Pacific between Los Angeles and Tokyo. What looks like a detour on many flat maps is often close to the shortest path on Earth: a great-circle route, the shortest line between two points on a sphere. On a flat map, that route can appear curved and may arc north across the North Pacific.
A straight line drawn across a common map projection is not necessarily the shortest way to fly. The projection stretches and reshapes parts of the globe to fit a rectangle, making the route’s geometry look misleading.
Why the exact track can change
Airlines do not simply trace the shortest line and leave it there. Dispatchers plan a route using forecasts for winds and weather, air-traffic constraints, and operational requirements. Strong tailwinds can make a longer path faster or more fuel-efficient; turbulence or storms can prompt a change.
Over a remote ocean, planners also account for how far the aircraft can be from a suitable airport if it needs to divert. That can influence which route is practical, though it does not mean the flight avoids the Pacific.
So the apparent northern swing is not a refusal to fly over open water. It is the result of viewing a spherical Earth on a flat map, combined with the practical choices that shape an individual flight’s track.
