KLM from New York to Amsterdam in record time thanks to storm Ciara

On Sunday, the whole of the Netherlands was under the spell of Ciara. The storm that raged over our country caused a lot of nuisance. Trees fell, roofs blew off houses and trucks went off the road. Yet Schiphol seemed to be hit the hardest. Air traffic was grounded through Ciara for almost the entire day and landing was virtually impossible. However, it turned out that the strong wind could also have positive consequences. For example, a flight from New York arrived at Amsterdam an hour and a half earlier than planned.

With a speed of more than 1,300 kilometers per hour, KLM flight 644 flew over the Atlantic Ocean in record time on Sunday morning. For comparison: normally the Boeing 747 used for this flight flies at a speed of 900 to 1,000 km/h. This record speed was due to a so-called jet stream. This jet stream is a very strong wind at an altitude of nine to ten kilometers.

Ciara sets records

The wind in this jet stream reached speeds of nearly 420 kilometers per hour. That is quite a boost and that was reflected in the flight time. Normally it takes around seven hours to fly from New York to Amsterdam, but thanks to Ciara the flight arrived almost an hour and a half earlier than planned. KLM was able to take advantage of the storm, but they were certainly not the only ones.

Breaking: @KLM flight 644 reached an incredible ground speed of 819 mph — faster than the speed of sound — over Newfoundland on Friday night. ✈️

The Boeing 747 was flying in an extremely strong 260 mph jet stream! Thanks to Captains Bakker and Best! pic.twitter.com/Rs9ggzP5cK

– Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) February 8, 2020

Not only KLM flew on nicely

British Airways also had Ciara’s wind in its sails. Flight BA212 flew from Boston to London in 4 hours and 47 minutes in the night from Saturday to Sunday. Not much later, another flight managed to cross the big lake in less than five hours. Again it was a British Airways plane, but this time from New York to London. This did this in 4 hours and 56 minutes and broke the record on this route. This record was held by Norwegian with a time of 5 hours and 13 minutes.

Weather’s gone to shit but at least you can you now get from JFK to Heathrow faster than a train from Edinburgh to Bristol. https://t.co/Y0wP1f7G77

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) February 9, 2020