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Aviation glossary

Cruise speed

Also: cruising speed, cruise Mach

Weights and performance

Speed at which an aircraft flies most of a journey, in level flight at high altitude, chosen to balance fuel burn, time and cost.

What it is

For jets it is usually expressed as a Mach number, a fraction of the speed of sound, because that is what limits an aircraft at high altitude. A typical jet airliner cruises between Mach 0.78 and 0.85, roughly 830 to 900 km/h through the air at cruising altitude. Turboprop cruise speeds are given in km/h or knots.

It is not the aircraft's top speed. Airlines choose a speed that balances fuel against time using the cost index in the flight management computer: when fuel is expensive they fly a little slower, and when connections or crew hours matter more, a little faster.

Ground speed also depends on the wind: with a jet stream tailwind, an airliner can comfortably exceed 1,000 km/h over the ground without flying any faster through the air.

On Vuelopedia

The technical data on a Vuelopedia model page gives the cruise speed in km/h and as a Mach number.

Related terms

Mach numberRatio of an aircraft's speed through the air to the speed of sound in that air; Mach 1 means flying at exactly the speed of sound. KnotUnit of speed used in aviation and at sea, equal to one nautical mile per hour, which is exactly 1.852 km/h. CruiseThe central and usually longest phase of a flight, in which the aircraft flies level at its most efficient height and speed between the climb and the descent. Jet streamA narrow band of very strong westerly winds at high altitude in the mid-latitudes, which shortens or lengthens flights depending on whether they fly with it or against it. Specific fuel consumptionAmount of fuel an engine burns for each unit of thrust or power it produces over a given time; the standard measure of engine efficiency.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Cruise speed. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed

MLA

“Cruise speed.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Cruise speed.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Cruise speed. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_cruise_speed,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Cruise speed}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/cruise-speed |title=Cruise speed |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}

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