Another factor is the design of the airspace. There are numerous things that can affect it, such as adjoining airports/ airfields, obstacles such as telecoms towers and tall buildings, and even people who live under the flightpaths (some are very vocal and sometimes it's just easier to avoid them...). So for example, on a multi runway airport, you could fly further on one runway compared to the other.
These days, environmental considerations are taken into account and reducing the distances flown (albeit they may be small) is a big factor in the airspace design.