Singapore Airlines Flight 21 is the longest regular scheduled non-stop flight in the world. It flies from Newark Liberty International Airport to Singapore Changi Airport, covering about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) miles still air distance in about 18.5 hours flight time.[1] It is operated by an Airbus A340-500. Its return flight is Flight 22 from Singapore to Newark, which is the second-longest flight in the world, being scheduled to be fifteen minutes shorter due to prevailing high-altitude winds.
The shortest path between Newark and Singapore is a north/south route over Baffin Island, the North Pole, Siberia and China. However, the actual flight paths deviate from the ideal route via the North Pole for a number of reasons, such as favourable jet stream tail winds, safety issues (few alternative airports along the North Pole route), and the daily-changing North Atlantic Tracks.[2] Hence, the Newark-to-Singapore flights travel over the UK and follow the same route to Singapore as other flights originating from Europe, while the Singapore-to-Newark flights travel via Japan, Alaska and Canada. On both legs the actual route therefore has an initial north-east heading, rather than straight north. The flight paths can be seen in these images.[3][4] The shortest distance between Newark and Singapore via the North Pole is 15,345 kilometres (9,535 mi).[5] Newark to Singapore via London is 16,464 kilometres (10,230 mi) and Singapore to Newark via Tokyo is 16,184 kilometres (10,056 mi).[6]
Singapore Airlines originally offered an Executive Economy Class on this flight. Seats in this class of travel were more spacious than ordinary Economy Class seats. However, SIA phased out this class of service in favor of 100-seat all-Business Class flights on the non-stop flights between Singapore and Newark or Los Angeles in 2008.[7]
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- 1 25% ownership
- 2 49% ownership
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