Sydney: Qantas has announced plans for the world’s longest commercial flight by the end of 2025, which will transport passengers between Sydney and London in just over 19 hours on an Airbus A350.
Few airlines fly such long distances non-stop, presenting a multitude of challenges including aircraft capacity, economic viability, and even crew and passenger health.
Here are some of the longest flights in the world: Singapore to New York: 18 hr 40 min Singapore Airlines flight SQ24 to New York John F Kennedy International Airport is currently the longest commercial flight in the world.
Carried passengers more than 15,000 kilometers (9,300 miles) from the city-state to the eastern United States on the Airbus A350900.
It also performs the second-longest journey. Flight SQ22, also on A350900, to Newark, NJ, is scheduled for 18 hours and 25 minutes. Qantas will use the A3501000 variant on its scheduled Sydney-London flights.
Darwin to London 17 hr 55 min Qantas’ current longest route, QF9, connects Darwin in Northern Australia to London daily, with passengers traveling nearly 14,000km in Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
flights originally operated between London and the western city of Perth but were switched to Darwin due to Covid-related travel restrictions in Australia.
Qantas has announced it will resume the PerthLondon route this year. Los Angeles to Singapore More than 17 hours Singapore Airlines flight SQ35 takes passengers more than 14,000 km across the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles on the US west coast to the Asian city-state in 17 hours and 10 minutes.
The airline’s flight from San Francisco to Singapore is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. New York Hong Kong in 1617 hours? Cathay Pacific said in March it plans to switch its New York-Hong Kong route across the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, which would make the journey longer than Singapore Airlines flight SQ24 to JFK.
The flight route will cover “almost 9,000 nautical miles” (10,357 miles) or 16,668 kilometers in 16 to 17 hours, the airline told AFP.
According to Bloomberg, he refused to explain why his trajectory gave a wide berth around Russian airspace, which he had previously flown through.
Many airlines have canceled routes to Russian cities or are avoiding Russian airspace because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Cathay Pacific said the decision was made because “strong seasonal tailwinds” made the new route cheaper.