The person with the honor of running the longest flight in the history of the globe might soon change once again.
When it launches in late 2025, Qantas' nonstop service between Sydney Airport (SYD) and London's Heathrow Airport (LHR), which covers a distance of 10,576 miles and takes 20 hours, is anticipated to hold the record for the world's longest flight.
The story of the longest flight in history is a dynamic one by nature. Airlines have been able to fly their planes farther and farther as engineering and technology have advanced. Data from OAG, a worldwide travel data supplier based in the United Kingdom, shows that over the previous 26 years, the length of the longest flight has increased by over 33%.
The 7,973-mile trip by South African Airways from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) held the record for the world's longest flight until 1997.
The distance of the longest flight has been longer ever since. With a distance of 9,532 miles, Singapore Airlines' journey from JFK to Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) has held the record for the world's longest flight since 2021.
Surprisingly, the OAG figures show that since 1997, most of these ultra-long-haul flights have originated in the United States. Thus, the upcoming Sydney to London route will be the only other two ultra-long-haul flights that haven't left the United States in the last 26 years. The two other flights on OAG's list without a place of origin in the United States are Emirates' 2016 flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Dubai (8,824 miles) and Qatar's 2017 flight from Auckland to Doha, Qatar (9,031).
According to the BBC, Qantas had been planning what would end up being the world's longest flight since 2017 as part of the ambitious project "Project Sunrise," which was halted as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Project Sunrise is referred to as "the final frontier in aviation" on the website of the Australian carrier.
Project Sunrise urged airplane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing to provide a regular nonstop flight from Australia's east coast to London. The aircraft used for the voyage from Sydney to London will be an Airbus A350-1000, which can carry 350 to 410 passengers and go to almost any location on Earth.
Despite the fact that Qantas will initially begin service from Sydney to London and New York (SYD-JFK is 9,950 miles apart), the Australian airline has ambitions to begin service on additional nonstop routes to and from Australia in the future.
In 2019, Qantas launched a trial run of these extremely long-haul flights from New York to Sydney. A Boeing 787-9 that could only carry 50 passengers was used for the test flight. When I was on the test flight, I thought it was a fascinating experience.
When the 2019 flight first took place, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce praised it and called it "historic."
FACEBOOK