Definition
The total elapsed time from takeoff at the departure airport to landing at the destination airport for a given flight, calculated during flight planning using forecast winds, planned groundspeed, and route distance.
Plain English
How long the flight will take from leaving one airport to arriving at the other.
Context Anchor
You will see this term in flight planning, navigation logs, fuel planning, and training discussions about whether a planned flight can be completed safely within available time and fuel.
Derivation
‘En route’ comes from French, meaning ‘on the way’ or ‘in transit.’ So ‘time en route’ literally means the time spent on the way — between departure and arrival.
Why Pilots Care
Accurate time en route determines fuel required, arrival sequencing, and compliance with any ATC time restrictions.
Intuition Check
Do not read time en route as the total time spent on the whole trip. Here it means the time spent flying along the planned route between points.
Example Sentence 1
Based on the forecast headwind, she calculated a time en route of one hour and forty minutes.
Example Sentence 2
A stronger headwind increased the time en route by eight minutes, so I added extra fuel.