When does a plane passenger break their fast?
Whoever breaks their fast on the ground and then the airplane takes off with them, and they see the sun, they are not required to abstain from eating and drinking, because they have completed their fast. As for whoever the airplane takes off with before sunset, they may not break their fast unless the sun sets in their aerial location, and it is not permissible for them to descend [to a lower altitude] to scheme for breaking the fast.
If the fasting person is on an airplane and sees the sun, they are not allowed to break their fast because the objective, "then complete the fast until the night" [Quran 2:187], has not been fulfilled for them. But if they break their fast in a country and then the airplane takes off and they see the sun, they continue to be in a state of having broken their fast, because their ruling is that of the country from which they departed.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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