Delta Fares

when you want to track a flight (online), i.e. Delta 22 from ATL to CDG, and there is written that the "speed"?

..... is scheduled at 468 kts, what is meant by "speed" there... I would say TAS, however, it could also be GS...What say you?

Public Comments

1. I have no idea what TAS or GS is, but the speed units are knots (nautical miles per hour). My GPS that I turned on briefly during a flight showed a max speed of 462 mph. 1 knot = 1.15077945 mph PS: I see it now, air speed vs. ground speed. My GPS was ground speed.
2. For planning purposes I would bet they are talking about GS (ground speed) though I don't know this for sure. Then TAS (or true airspeed) isn't all that relevant since you don't know about temperature, headwind component, etc in order to make any sense about it from your computer on the ground
3. Ok I'm guessing you are using flightaware, if not most trackers will still use the same unit of speed, which is GS- Ground Speed. Flightaware I know does for a fact. Anyways a plane crossing the atlantic going eastbound like DAL22 from KATL-LFPG, would defiantly hit strong tailwinds, from 50-150 mph. Causing your ground speed to be anything from 400-600 across the atlantic (depending on the winds on a certain day). So yes that is ground speed. Crossing the atlantic going westbound is a pain in the butt because you have headwinds going back so your ground speed is a lot slower. It's all about winds. Here this is a website that real pilots use to check weather, of course it doesn't show the atlantic and only US but you can see how the winds are right off the eastc oast of the US: http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/winds/ Select an altitude and wind streamlines, and you will see how great of tailwinds you get and how fast you may go if you were DAL22 going eastbound to CDG! Hope this helps : )
4. Those speeds are given in GS. Obviously conditions change and sometimes that means the GS will vary almost always.