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SEVERAL TRANSATLANTIC COMMERCIAL flights have reached speeds of well over 1,200 kilometres per hour (km/h) due to a powerful jet stream this week.
The jet stream is a wind between 30,000 and 40,000 feet high in the atmosphere that is travelling from west to east, meandering across the Atlantic Ocean with speeds of about 305 to 355 kilometres an hour.
Airline companies are expected to use the jet stream off the east coast of the US to pick up speed and save on fuel as they travel east across the Atlantic.
The jet stream is one of the reasons why the trip from the US to Ireland is faster than the journey from here to the US – a flight from Dublin to New York generally takes seven hours and 50 minutes, while a flight in the other direction takes only six hours and 30 minutes.
This week, the jet stream has been “supercharged” with high wind speeds of 418km/h, BBC Weather has reported.
Wow! According to data from flightradar, BA274 flying Las Vegas to Heathrow has just hit a speed of 814mph thanks to extreme jetstream winds!
— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) January 22, 2025
The subsonic speed record is 835mph, with the jetstream strengtheing later, this record is under threat https://t.co/uLtJm6DaQu pic.twitter.com/BRWJWm16nq
One commercial aircraft, a British Airways flight travelling from New York to Lisbon reached a ground speed of 1,344km/h as it caught a lift in the “extreme” winds, according to BBC Weather.
That is approximately 420km/h faster than a typical top speed for such a flight, and is approximately 110km/h faster than the speed of sound.
The flight shaved an hour off its estimated travel time, and potentially broke commercial flight speed records.
The flight was one of several instances where increased flight speeds were recorded this week.
Paul Williams, a professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, said that the increased speed is a result of climate change, with typical speeds increasing by about 2% for every one degree increase in global warming.
“The projections are for a further increase, maybe a doubling or trebling of the amount of severe turbulence in large parts of the jet stream by, for example, the 2060s,” Williams told BBC News.
According to Met Éireann, the Atlantic jet stream causing strong winds is likely to bring “unsettled conditions” to Ireland later this week.
Met Éireann has said that the “orientation of the jet stream towards the end of the week will support the development of deep low pressure systems to track near Ireland this weekend”.
It will mean “unsettled conditions bringing wet and possibly very windy weather at times from Friday onwards”.
The national forecaster has issued a weather advisory for Thursday night and Friday to say that “very strong winds” are likely, as well as high seas and spells of heavy rain.
Weather Advisory for Ireland🌊🌧️🌬️
— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 20, 2025
Keep up to date with https://t.co/e0QpncNS7O and our App for any warning updates. pic.twitter.com/upmLshJUFy
In the UK, the Met Office has warned of disruptive weather and potentially the “strongest winds of the winter so far”.
Current indications for Friday, Met Éireann says, suggest that it will be a very windy day with near gale force southwesterly winds developing, potentially reaching gale force in places.
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And then they waited 90 minutes on the ground for their parking stand to come free….
@Ckeego: it’s cheaper if goes faster, less jet fuel used
@Ní neart go cur le chéile.: that’s because a law of physics relating to surpassing the speed of monetary inflation.
@Luke Littler: at -40 to -70 degrees at that altitude ??? eh I don’t think so
@Luke Littler: Do explain…
You can imagine the pilots were loving the air speed indicator on that flight.
@Joshua Walsh: I say the airline companies were saying them to burn as much as you want, just get us the record…
Marketing Dept would love the tag as fastest commercial airline in the business..
@Joshua Walsh: the air speed would not have been that impressive, seeing they were in very strong tailwinds (and helping saving fuel as well). It’s the land speed that was the x-factor.
@Joshua Walsh: where are the speed cameras when you need them
Shame on the Opposition, especially SF, and the pro Hamas NGOs outside the Dail, they have turned our country into a joke, I have never felt so ashamed
@pee wee: Think you’re posting on the wrong article but I’ve never been so ashamed as humanity seeing what Israel are doing in Palestine. Ireland is pretty pro-Palestine in general so must be a tough place to be for you.
@eoin fitzpatrick: sorry to break it to you, but for most Irish people, Palestine isn’t even an afterthought
@pee wee: That’s bs. The Irish people feel a strong affiliation with Palestinians. We both had our lands stolen by a more powerful occupation army and have been called terrorists for fighting back
@pee wee: Sorry to break it to you the Palestinian people have far more support than Israel. But you keep dreaming
@FoxyBoiiYT: Not sure we cut throats and r**^ed women and gunned them in the midriff in retaliation.
@Ger Whelan: not at all
@FoxyBoiiYT: what a dumb comment
@pee wee: And what does Palestine have to do exactly with this article?
@Marc Power: if we’re going to be an Islamic country soon you may as well embrace it. Praise be to Allah.
@pee wee: I call BS on tht one. Troll.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Support for Palestine is the equivalent of Christian western turkeys voting for a Shia Islamic caliphate Christmas.
Read a little.
@pee wee: Complete bellend.
@FoxyBoiiYT: I couldn’t have put it better myself..
Fintan I’m telling you I just floored it. New York to Dublin in 42 minutes.
It’s not faster than the speed of sound. When there is a strong tail wind like that, sound would still travel faster.
@Louis Jacob: good point, I guess they mean speed of sound through static air or something. Good catch though
@Louis Jacob: no it wouldn’t speed of sound is a constant
@Seán O’Sullivan: the speed of sound is not constant. It varies with temperature
I wonder what is the safe speed limit for a commercial airliner?
@Toca Stories: It depends. Vmo changes according to various factors like altitude, air pressure, IAS/TAS. Just to name a few.
@Toca Stories: There are two speed measurements on an aircraft, land speed and air speed. The air speed is constant but with a head wind, the land speed is slower due to the aircraft being blown backwards. With a tail wind, the land speed is faster due to the aircraft being blown forward!
@Brian Hunt: Almost, but not quite two. GS (Ground Speed, relative to the ground), IAS (Indicated Air Speed, taken from the pitot tubes), and TAS (True Air Speed, IAS speed corrected for altitude and temperature).
@Daniel Skelton: Thanks Daniel ,live a little, learn a little!
@Daniel Skelton: Cheers for the info Daniel… do you work in aviation??
Wow! Cool!
Happens to me after a Chinese takeaway
Slow down will ya
Must have played havoc with landing slots at Heathrow.
@Alan Byrne: Lisbon you mean
Reduce fuel costs even more, climb it to 39,000ft shut down the engines, coast em to London. Let the tailwind do the work.
So did the flight go supersonic or was it still subsonic?
have your say