{"id":3837,"date":"2026-08-31T15:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatipi.com\/andyscorner\/?p=3837"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:51:34","slug":"the-longest-flights-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatipi.com\/andyscorner\/the-longest-flights-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Longest Flights in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the book Around the World in 80 Days, to prove that the world has shrunken, and to show how far a bank thief could go to prove a bet, Phelias Fogg bet that he could go around the world in only 80 days. By the time that Jules Verne wrote the book the world was going through rapid industrialization, and the ways to travel around the world were faster and more economical. Steamships could travel across the ocean in one or two weeks, and trains could cross a country in only a few days. However, Jueles Verne didn\u2019t know(Actually he probably did) what was going to come next: The airplane<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, after the airplane was invented, people tried to make the range increase more and more, to go further and further distances, from across the English Channel, to across the Mediterranean, to across the Indian Ocean, to across the Atlantic. Eventually, the Jet Engine was invented, which was much more efficient than the propeller planes before, and thus could travel longer distances with less fuel, like the Boeing 707. However, when the Boeing 747 was invented, it was a gamechanger, as it had 4 engines, and thus could have much longer range than those before it due to more engines producing thrust. It also had much more capacity,  so the prices were lowered, thus making air travel more affordable and much more long range, with flights across the Pacific and to far away lands like Europe and North America to South Africa being easily achieved, with further away locations being only 1 stop or so away. However, soon, the Boeing 747\u2019s also met their downfall. They relied heavily on the Hub and Spoke system, where planes flew between major hubs, such as New York JFK and London or Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda, where passengers had to make a stop before a connecting flight, which started to subside after the rise of point to point networks and smaller aircraft. Meanwhile, the 4 engines on the Boeing 747 were drastically inefficient compared to 2 engine aircraft, which would be proved again with the success of the Boeing 777 and 787, and the failure of the Airbus A340 and A380. And with the long range of the Boeing 777, one airline decided to make a flight longer than ever done before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 1, 2001, a Continental Boeing 777-200ER took off from Newark Liberty Airport, and started its journey, just like any other flight. However, it soon turned north, and continued to go north until it reached the top of the world, and continued to go south, where after 16 hours, it finally landed at Hong Kong, completing the world’s first Ultra Long Flight. Never before had those locations been connected despite being business centers and tourism hotspots where business was in high demand. However, after that, more and more long haul flights like these started popping up at such a rapid rate that this flight is not even in the top 25 anymore, and Hong Kong to New York flights are commonplace, even if still kind of long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why is that? Why are so many ultra long haul flights starting to pop up? Well, we will get to that, but one could start to see why based on the top 10 longest flights now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Singapore to Los Angeles, a 8,770 mile, 18 hour flight operated by Singapore Airlines on the Airbus A350-900 since November 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Shenzhen Bao\u2019an to Mexico City Juarez, a 8,791 mile, 15 hour flight operated by China Southern on the Airbus A350-900 since May 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Dubai to Auckland, a 8,823 mile, 17 hour flight operated by Emirates on the Airbus A380(Which makes this the longest A380 flight) since March 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Auckland to New York JFK, a 8,828 mile, 18 hour flight operated by Air New Zealand and Qantas by the Boeing 787-9 since September 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Perth to Paris Charles De Gaulle, a 8,863 mile, 17 hour flight operated by Qantas on the Boeing 787-9  since July 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Melbourne to Dallas Fort Worth, a 8,992 mile, 18 hour flight operated by Qantas on the Boeing 787-9 since December 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Perth to London Heathrow, a 9,009 mile, 17 hour flight operated by Qantas on the Boeing 787-9 since March 2018, the first direct flight from Europe to Australia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Doha to Auckland, a 9,032 mile, 17 hour flight operated by Qatar Airways on the Boeing 777-200LR since February 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Singapore to Newark, a 9,534 mile, 19 hour flight operated by Singapore Airlines on the Airbus A350-900 ULR since October 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Singapore to New York JFK, a 9,537 mile, 19 hour flight operated by Singapore Airlines on the Airbus A350-900 ULR since November 2020, and currently the longest flight in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as you can see, most of these flights are new, with most appearing only in the past 10 years, and are mostly flights from North America to Singapore, or flights from Europe, North America and Asia to Australia and Oceana. These destinations are some of the furthest away from each other, but still have enough demand to justify the flights; after all, some city pairs are further, like the west coast of the US and South Africa, or Asia and South America, but there is not enough demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why is this acceleration happening now? Before there were occasional new long flights every few years or so, but this process has accelerated to around once a year or two years. Well, there are several reasons for this, political, economical, and technological.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first major reason for this is the fact that planes and airlines can fly to a lot more places than before, due to the end of the Cold War. Back during the Cold War, Russian airspace was restricted to all western airlines, and they all had to go around, with disastrous consequences to those that didn\u2019t, like in Korean Air flights 007 and 902, which were both shot down by the Soviet Air Force. This would cause airlines flying from America and Europe to East Asia to have to fly over the Arctic, starting with SAS in 1954, and, due to the limited range of aircraft back then, had to make a stop, primarily in Anchorage, making the airport being one of the most cosmopolitan in the world, with airlines like Air France, British Airways, SAS, Lufthansa, KLM, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air making commonplace stops there. However, with the dissolution of the USSR, Russian airspace opened, and thus the routes from Europe to Asia became much much shorter, thus making the Anchorage stop useless, as planes could now cross over Siberia, thus making longer flights possible, and flights from Europe and Asia became much shorter. However, although after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Russian airspace was closed to western carriers, most airlines just chose to fly south, or, like Finnair, fly over the Arctic again to avoid Russia. However, none of these airlines fly to Anchorage anymore because the plane’s range is long enough to fly over, but not land there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because the range of the aircraft needed to fly these routes have increased, and the technology has become available for routes of this length, led primarily by two aircraft: The Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. Referring back to the top 10 longest flights, 8\/10 of them are flown by these two aircraft, because of their extended range. This is because they are made of composite materials, which makes them more efficient, and they have bigger engines. Now, granted, planes like the Boeing 777-200LR and the Airbus A340-500 have existed before that could fly these routes, but they were less efficient. For example, Singapore Airlines used to fly the A340-500 from Singapore to Newark from 2004 to 2014, but it was canceled due to high fuel costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, even with this, it could be more efficient to run a stopping service, such as from Singapore to Los Angeles to Newark. Now, this might not make sense initially due to planes using more fuel during takeoff and landing, but this could make sense seeing that the planes use fuel to carry fuel, as after takeoff, the burn rate sharply declines, but soon slowly starts to increase, which is often why cargo airlines usually have a stopping service rather than flying long haul routes. So, using a stopping service would be more efficient, but  that would increase the time, and make people, especially business travelers, annoyed, as they care far more about timing than the average tourist, which cares more about price. So, these routes primarily exist for premium demand, and most of these routes exist for that, or to transfer to other various destinations. This is why there aren’t many flights to more tourist focused destinations, because the airlines are not certain they can make their money back on the route. For example, one of the biggest demands for a direct flight in the world is Los Angeles to Bangkok, but because Thailand is primarily a tourism destination, there is no direct flights, although United does operate a stopping service and 5th freedom flight through Hong Kong, because airlines realize that a direct flight will mostly be for tourists, and are more price sensitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But another big reason is that fuel is just cheaper, and has been dropping, although it does occasionally rise, like during the Iran War, which is sometimes why several low cost carriers, like Norwegian, Azul, and Jetstar have become long haul carriers, and explains their rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these reasons came together in 2018 when Singapore Airlines launched its service from Singapore Changi Airport to Newark Liberty Airport in the world\u2019s longest flight used by the Airbus A350-900 ULR. There has been considerable business and premium demand between New York and Singapore for some time, and Singapore Airlines has used the A380 from New York JFK to Singapore with a stop in Frankfurt, but this is the first direct flight in years, as it was previously flown by the A340-500, but had less efficient engines and range, and thus was cut. However, the A350-900 has the range that can make it, and in order to maximize premium demand, contains only business class and premium economy seats, appealing to the business traveler and the ones who want high quality over lower price. The flight has been a success, as travelers have been using this flight, and one of the most high demand routes in the world between 2 major business centers has been connected nonstop. However, there is one longer, even higher demand flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia was colonized by Britain, and thus has lots of economic, cultural, and political ties with Britain and other European nations, along with the United States. However, Australia is one of the biggest countries in the world that is in a very isolated position, with flights from Sydney to East Asia being at least 6 hours, to the Middle East at least 10, to America at least 14, and Europe needing at least one stopover. But, because the demand for flights between the two regions is extremely high, lots of airlines tried to fly this route, with Qantas, the primary Australian airline, operating the so called Kangaroo route between London and Sydney since 1934 with several stops, decreasing further and further over time, until 1988, when only one stop was required between London and Sydney through Singapore. However, soon after that, Asian airlines, with wider network depth started filling the route, like Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, and others, which flew to more European and Australian cities to make the connection. However, that changed in 2018, when Qantas launched a flight between London Heathrow and Perth Airport on their 787-9 Dreamliners, the first direct commercial flight ever between Europe and Australia. The flight has since done extremely well, with a higher load factor than average, and with that, Qantas decided to go one step further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2018, Qantas challenged Airbus and Boeing to create a plane that could fly fully loaded from Sydney to major cities like London, Paris, Cape Town, New York, and Rio De Janeiro in what it called Project Sunrise to create the longest flights in the world. Boeing proposed the Boeing 777-8, which it is still making, while Airbus created the Airbus A350-1000ULR, or ultra long range, and is currently going through testing, and will enter service in 2027. The Airbus A350-1000ULR has a range of around 24 hours and at least 12000 miles. And, with that, the whole world will be connected, and the only factor for longer flights will be economic, not technological.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qantas and Project Sunrise will return in Avengers Doomsday, uhh I mean Part 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the book Around the World in 80 Days, to prove that the world has shrunken, and to show how far a bank thief could go to prove a bet, Phelias Fogg bet that he could go around the world in only 80 days. By the time that Jules Verne wrote the book the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[38,35,8],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-essays","category-history"],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/qatipi.com\/andyscorner\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/qatipi.com\/andyscorner\/feed\/podcast\/the-corner-podcast","embedCode":"

The Longest Flights in the World<\/a><\/blockquote>