Actually, thanks go to Innuendo and LurkR for the links.
Innuendo you are spot on here. It defaults to statute miles and if you select nautical miles, the number is about 6503 as you reported earlier. Also, mind you it will get longer once the route is recalculated using airways - as such it seems the route would take the aircraft through a lot of "restricted" airspace so deviations are bound to be factored in. An example would be while overflying the Hindukush region - expect a lot of zig-zag headings there. Russia might prove similarly long. Any more ideas here?
A follow on question - without poring through endless charts, is there anyway to map the route using airways? Any pilots or flight ops personnel familiar with the regions the flight path would take?
Cheers.
[edited to acknowledge Innuendo's finding]
[ 17 August 2001: Message edited by: TVA164 ]