Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I would double check your accuracy on this statement. The great circle route does put you into Russian airspace and the Northern pacific winds often push the optimum route even further north and deeper into Russia.
IAH-SYD, which we currently fly, is 13,834 km.
If we flew SFO-BKK via flying overheard HKG (which we currently do easily) its 12,836.
That's 1,000 km shorter. Even if we need to go further south and fly over NRT its still only 12,896 km.
Totally doable and well outside Russian airspace as is all of the Pacific flying we are currently doing including ICN, PVG and PEK.