This is one of the issues that divides and entertains travelers. Many believe that a plane takes less time to travel from West to East because it is "against" the Earth's rotation, but the answer has nothing to do with going "with or against the Earth's rotation". Furthermore, if that theory were true, traveling would be easy: we could take a helicopter, ascend a few kilometers, and wait. The ground would move beneath our feet, and when our destination passes below us, we could land again. Additionally, the Earth rotates on its axis from West to East, so planes that take less time should be those traveling from East to West, exactly the opposite of what happens in reality. The reason this occurs is due to the wind. The prevailing winds in the temperate zones of both hemispheres move from West to East (from America to Europe and Africa across the Atlantic, from Asia to America across the Pacific). At certain altitudes, these winds are very strong and are called jet streams. Some planes take advantage of these streams to travel East. However, for example, at the equator, there are no jet streams. Therefore, planes take less time from West to East if you are relatively far from the equator, heading North or South. In fact, planes can take a longer route to use the jet streams and thus take less time than on the shorter route.