Because Santa is a fascist dictator of an armed militant ethnostate (elves) who WILL commit acts of violence to prevent intrusions on their airspace

Japan Airlines has direct flights from Boston to Narita.

Edit to add: Cathay Pacific has direct flights from Boston to Hong Kong that go over the North Pole.

In 2008 the Red Sox opened the season in Tokyo against the Athletics, an MLB initiative to build the brand in Japan. They took a chartered flight from Boston that went to Tokyo via the pole. I remember seeing a photo (in the Globe, I think) of some of the players looking out the window in the middle of the flight at the ice sheet near the North Pole. I did a quick search online for the picture but couldn't find it. Maybe someone else can?

Years later I flew to Tokyo from Detroit and managed to take my own photo of the ice cap. Coming from Detroit we didn't go directly over the pole but we were a few hundred miles North of the northernmost part of Alaska.

Umm we do have those flights. JAL has had a direct Tokyo flight for years. In addition Korean Air has a direct to Seoul that I believe they are restarting. Hainan is restarting directs to Beijing and Shanghai. Finally Cathay Pacific flies direct to Hong Kong and goes over pole

We have flights but after the Russian invasion of ukraine everyone is flying around russian space. Not a big deal for Japan but is for some other flights

I've done that Cathay Pacific flight. Given the ridiculous timesuck, it was pretty alright.

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The Korean Air flight has already restarted!

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Yep see the track of the Cathay Pacific flight here: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/CPA811

Do you really want a direct? I've done it 14 hours, it was miserable. I mean the airline was great, but 14 hours in a tube? It sucked, I could barely stand when I finally got up.

Passenger flights routinely use the “polar route” to get from North America to Asia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_route

It's worse to route through CA. Sure you break it up but you add so many extra hours to the trip. I'd rather get it all overwith in as short a time as possible.

I dunno, I vastly prefer the direct. Having to stop in California or Detroit was a lot worse IMO.

Direct all day. It wasn't quite as long, but having done Boston to Hawaii and back, I'd pick the direct every time. Flying there with a 3 hour layover in LAX was somehow worse than flying back to Boston in a middle seat for 10 hours.

The reason there are no flights that go over the North Pole is one of the main pieces of “evidence” that Flat Earthers use to “prove” the earth is flat. They say the world as we know it is a big disk with all of the countries and oceans on it that has ice around the edges, which the round earthers call “the arctic” and “Antarctic.” And that all of the “space” photos, moon landings, etc. are all fake.

Different strokes, different folks. I regularly fly to Asia and i'll take the shitty stopover every time. And here's the kicker, i'm a huge aviation enthusiast. Love flying to my core. Not claustrophobic either. Just hate sitting in those shitty seats for that long.