Santa

What is the closest to the North Pole a regularly scheduled commercial passenger flight goes?

With the shortest route between two points possibly being near the North Pole, do they fly around to avoid safety problems like the certain disaster that would happen if they had a forced landing?

Public Comments

1. Just a guess but Newark-Singapore comes close. Look for two cities that are 180 degrees opposite longitude from each other (i.e. 105East is 75West) However they have rules like twin-engine planes must be so and so minutes from a landing site always and different tailwinds and jet streams and such complicate things so they don't really fly the great circle. Even the paths on the same route will be different in each direction.
2. Um... I think a flight that cuts directly through the North Pole is American Airlines, from Chicago O'Hare to New Delhi, India.