I believe that's only true for 2 engine aircraft. Virgin Australia briefly ran a service from Melbourne to Johannesburg using 777s, which was 2 hours longer th

I believe that's only true for 2 engine aircraft. Virgin Australia briefly ran a service from Melbourne to Johannesburg using 777s, which was 2 hours longer than it needed to be for this reason. Looking at this map, it's clear why: the great circle path almost goes over Antarctica, and the closest airports over the path are in Australia and South Africa.