NWR: why is the flight from jamaica twice as long as the flight down?

Layover???

No they are both in and out of the same airports and they're in the same time zone.

Air currents make planes travel faster or slower, but I'm guessing it's the time difference. Have you compared time zones?

Well you answered my time zone question. Air currents usually don't have that much of an effect! They might be in and out of the same airport but still do a stop in a city before carrying on?

Are they in different time zones?

LillyBride- no other stops. I didn't think wind would add THAT much time either...

I think sometimes flight paths differ - for example the flight down might be in a straight line, but the one back might curve out to one side (basically to stop the planes in opposite directions getting too close to each other in mid air). I don't think I've seen one with quite this much difference though!

Maybe it's just because the pilot coming back from Jamaica is so much more laid back and chilled than the one heading there… :-)

It can definitely be a tome difference. Jamaica does not observe turn back or forward the clocks so half the year they are the same time as EST and the other half they are an hour off.

Maybe the pilot smokes some ganja in Jamaica, and he's super chill for the ride home?

Lol.

SoontobemrsR-ahh.... that must be it. I didn't know they didn't observe daylight savings. So in the summer we will be an hour off, right? Because daylight savings "begins" in spring and "ends" in fall....right?

Jemma got it right! It is because of the flight pattern. You can't have 2 planes taking the same route in opposite directions without a huge problem.

it happens on car rides too. next time you travel somewhere using GPS, really pay attention to time and distance travelled... its pretty neat