Today I learned about the longest regularly-scheduled non-stop flight ever.
Singapore Airlines Flight 21 (and the return flight, SQ22) traveled between Newark International Airport in New Jersey and Singapore’s Changi Airport. SQ22 (the return trip, SIN-EWR) was slightly longer, clocking in at 16,600km (9,000 nautical miles) as opposed to 15,344km (8,285 nautical miles) for the EWR-SIN leg.
The route traveled a great circle route passing over Asia and Alaska, coming within 130km of the North Pole. Both flights traveled the distance over approximately 18 hours - it would leave Newark at 11:00pm ET and land in Singapore at just after 4pm ET the next afternoon.
From wikipedia [emphasis mine]:
The airline said that this route would save four hours off a one-stop service. However medical experts expressed concerns regarding the 18-hour flight, in which passengers would breathe recycled air with a greater chance of picking up viral infections such as flu and colds on board. Furthermore, the heart and lungs would come under increased strain from a lower than usual supply of oxygen, with an enhanced risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) among people who fail to exercise frequently on board. The airline had installed special lockers on the aircraft to store the corpses of any passengers that died en route, since the flight's routing over the Pacific Ocean and the North Pole meant that there were few, if any, possible unscheduled stops.
THE FLIGHT WAS SO LONG THAT THE PLANE HAD CORPSE LOCKERS.
Currently, the longest regularly-scheduled non-stop flight is Emirates 449, from Aukland to Dubai, at 14,203 km over 17 hours and 15 minutes. Longest involving an American city is from Dallas/Fort Worth to Sydney, Qantas Flight 8 (13,804km, 16 hours 50 minutes). Next February, Qatar Airways will start a Doha-Aukland route that will be the world’s longest, but Singapore Airlines has announced that the Singapore-Newark route will make a comeback in 2018.
