Definition
The estimated time required to fly from one significant point to another, or to fly from a designated point to the destination of an IFR flight. In ICAO flight plan usage, it is the planned duration of a flight segment, expressed in hours and minutes.
Plain English
How long you expect a flight, or a leg of a flight, to take from one point to the next. It is a duration, not a clock time.
Context Anchor
Seen in flight plans, position reports, and air traffic control messages when a time between route points is needed.
Derivation
Elapsed comes from the Latin elapsus, meaning 'slipped away' — referring to time that passes between two moments. So 'estimated elapsed time' literally means the time you expect to slip by between two points.
Why Pilots Care
Used for accurate fuel planning and coordination with air traffic control.
Intuition Check
Estimated elapsed time is not the clock time when you expect to arrive. It is the amount of time expected to pass between two points.
Example Sentence 1
The crew filed an estimated elapsed time of three hours and ten minutes for the leg from Shannon to Gander.
Example Sentence 2
ATC requested the estimated elapsed time to the next reporting point.