Sydney: Qantas has revealed plans for the world’s longest-duration commercial flight by the end of 2025, ferrying passengers between Sydney and London on Airbus A350s in just over 19 hours.
Only a handful of airlines fly non-stop over such vast distances, which present a host of challenges including the capability of planes, commercial viability, and even the health of crew and passengers.
Here are some of the longest-duration flights in the world today:
Singapore to New York: 18 hrs 40 min
Singapore Airlines Flight SQ24 to New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport is currently the longest commercial journey in the world, taking passengers more than 15,000km from the city-state to the eastern US on Airbus A350-900s. Qantas will use the A350-1000 variant for its planned Sydney-London flights.
Singapore to Newark: 18hrs 25 min
This flight, too, is operated by Singapore Airlines. Flight SQ22, also on A350-900s, connects to Newark in the US state of New Jersey.
Darwin to London: 17 hrs 55 min
The longest current Qantas route - QF9 - connects Darwin in northern Australia with London daily, with passengers covering almost 14,000km on Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The flights were originally operated between London and the western city of Perth, but were moved to Darwin because of Covid-linked travel restrictions in Australia.
Qantas has said it will resume the Perth-London route this year.
Los Angeles to Singapore: 17 hrs 10 min
Singapore Airlines Flight SQ35 takes passengers more than 14,000km over the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles on the US West Coast to the Asian city-state in over 17 hours.
San Francisco-Singapore: 16 hours 40 min
This flight, too, is operated by Singapore Airlines.
New York-Hong Kong in 16-17 hrs?
Cathay Pacific said in March that it was planning to alter its New York-Hong Kong route over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific Ocean, making it a longer journey than Singapore Airlines Flight SQ24 to JFK.
The flight path will cover “just under 9,000 nautical miles” (10,357 miles) - or 16,668km - in 16 to 17 hours, the airline told AFP in a statement.
