Non-stop flight
A non-stop flight in the aviation industry refers to any flight which does not involve any intermediate stops. Many laymen mistakenly assume that a "direct flight" is similar to a "non-stop flight". An ultra long-haul non-stop flight is generally considered to be one of more than 11000 km in route length and of over 12 hours in duration, with no intermediate stop-over point[citation needed]. Due to great distances flown these flights are operated via great circle route or the polar route. The longest ultra long-haul flights as of May 2007 are operated between Southeast Asia and North America.
Historically, Israel's El Al set the non-stop record times for both long haul and ultra-long haul flights. In June 1961, the longest long-haul passenger flight between Tel Aviv and New York on a Boeing 707 completed its journey in 9 hours and 33 minutes. In May 1988, the first ultra long-haul passenger flight took off from Los Angeles airport to Tel Aviv completed its journey in 13 hours and 41 minutes.
Singapore Airlines introduced ultra long-haul flights on 3 February 2004[1] to Los Angeles and on 28 June 2004[2] to Newark.
Currently, the flight from Singapore to Newark is the longest non-stop flight in the world. The route from New York City (JFK or Newark) to Hong Kong is the longest non-stop route in the world to have more than one daily flight, and to be served by more than one airline.
Longest non-stop flights
The following lists the world's longest non-stop scheduled passenger routes in distance order. City-pairs may be served utilising different routings on the return journey, which may therefore involve different route lengths. Different weather conditions, particularly the direction of jet streams, also have a significant impact on the time needed to complete the journey. For example, Singapore Airline's flight 22 from Singapore to Newark follow a 15,700km great circle route, while its return flight flight 21 is a 16,600km polar route over the north pole. The Singapore - Los Angeles route takes about 16 hours to complete, but takes about 18.5 hours on the return trip.[3]
* Before 29 October 2006, the flight numbers for these 2 routes was SQ20 (SIN-LAX)/SQ19 (LAX-SIN)
# Scheduled to Start
Future of ultra long-haul
The longest non-stop flights currently running are not the longest city pairs theoretically possible. Flights on the Kangaroo route, if flown non-stop, would exceed 17,000 km. The longest routes possible are between antipodes, or points on the earth's surface opposite each other with the earth's center directly between, a distance of 20,038 km at the equator. A theoretical nonstop flight between Buenos Aires and Shanghai (two world cities that are fairly close to antipodal) would cover a great circle distance of 19,595 km. A Madrid, Spain to Wellington, New Zealand flight would be longer still, exceeding 19,800 km.
The Boeing 777-200LR airliner can cover the distance between antipodes when devoid of payload, but its range decreases significantly with the added weight of cargo and passengers. As of 2007, no airline has plans to introduce a non-stop service longer than the Singapore-Newark run, though both Airbus and Boeing have hinted at interest in developing variants to their long-haul airliners to make a London-Sydney nonstop flight economically feasible.
On December 10 2005 a Boeing 777-200LR dubbed the Worldliner completed the world's longest non-stop passenger flight traveling 13,422 miles or 21,602 kilometers eastwards (as opposed to normal westwards route for that sector which is twice shorter at 9647km) from Hong Kong to Heathrow, England in roughly 22 hours and 40 minutes. Also this flight has captured the record for longest staying aloft for an airliner. Onboard the 777-200LR were eight pilots including Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, Boeing's first woman test pilot. Although the plane seats 301, there were only 27 passengers aboard this flight. They were a couple Boeing executives; several Boeing 777 engineers; representatives from General Electric and a dozen journalists from around the world.