Route comparator

How to use it

1. 1Choose the origin and destination from the catalogue's ports and airports.
2. 2Tick the modes you want to compare and, to simulate a disruption, close passages such as Suez or Panama.
3. 3Open “Assumptions and rates” to adjust speeds and handling days, and enter your rates if you want a cost estimate.

How it calculates

• Sea: shortest path (Dijkstra's algorithm) on Eurostat's SeaRoute shipping network, plus the straight-line leg from the port to the nearest node. Days = nautical miles / knots / 24 + days in port + transhipments.
• Air: great-circle distance between the airports × route factor; days = km / speed / 24 + handling.
• Road: straight line × detour factor; days = driving hours / hours per day + loading and unloading.
• Rail: straight line × detour factor; days = km / average commercial speed / 24 + terminals.
• Air chargeable weight: the greater of actual weight and volume × 167 kg/m³ (1:6,000 ratio).

See the full methodology →

Verifiable example

Shanghai–Valencia by sea with all passages open: about 16,600 km (about 9,000 nautical miles) via Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb and Suez; at 15 knots that's about 25 days at sea plus 4 in port.

Limitations

• Estimates, not quotes: shipping lines choose different routes, port calls and speeds.
• The shipping network has a 50 km resolution: the distance can differ by a few percentage points from the real route.
• Road and rail don't check that a land connection exists.
• The Natural Earth port catalogue doesn't include some large ports (Busan, Shenzhen, Port Klang, Jebel Ali, Felixstowe, Tanjung Pelepas, Mundra): use the nearest one.
• We don't include market rates or CO₂ emissions (a source with a licence and verifiable methodology is missing).