Only for reasons of convenience. But the Great Circle is the standard of the shortest distance between two points. That's why flights from the western U.S. to Europe go close to the Arctic. (Been there, done that.) All the short hops are, by definition, segments of Great Circles.
Only for reasons of convenience. But the Great Circle is the standard of the shortest distance between two points. That's why flights from the western U.S. to Europe go close to the Arctic. (Been there, done that.) All the short hops are, by definition, segments of Great Circles.