World's longest flight by passenger aircraft?

[Genghis]

I am interested to establish what the world's longest flight record is for a passenger aircraft. I am aware of a 747-400 Qantas demonstration flight which flew LHR-SYD non stop. Is this record?

If not what is?

[Gaza]

I remember when the -400 was launched a UK-AUS attempt. I think it was done by BA but failed. It could not really count as a pax flight as there were no paying pax on board. I think on of the longest flights is JFK-JNB. Eastbound it is non-stop but westbound it stops in Accension.

[G.Khan]

The QF flight LHR-SYD definitely made it non-stop but I don't think there were any revenue pax, QF can answer that one. Gulf Air did a delivery flight SEA-BAH and I think one of the island airlines down at the southern end of the Indian Ocean may have done a very long delivery flight too.

Possibly one of the B747SP operators has the record? I think JFK-TYO is currently on the cards as a revenue flight, don't know who the operator is though.

[mustafagander]

With the few undamaged brain cells remaining to me, I seem to recall that a couple of years ago an A340 flew from Europe to NZ. Nominally a proving flight, but with the explicit purpose of going further than the QF B744 LHR-SYD.

The LHR-SYD flight was with an empty a/c and special, high density fuel.

[On Track]

With regard to regular revenue flights I imagine that the non-stop LAX-MEL flight by Qantas would have to be a contender.

According to the published timetable it's 15 hours 20 minutes.

[Rumet]

An A340 indeed flew nonstop from France (I think it was Toulouse) to Auckland - New Zealand some years ago. Then a 777 flew nonstop from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur. These two are the longest ones I can remember.

[newswatcher]

Several US airlines started US-Hong Kong services during 2001, Contintental's EWR-HKG(777) being currently scheduled as 15hrs 40 out, and 15hrs 45 return. When launched, the outward flight was claimed to be 16hrs 40 mins. I don't know where/how this saving was achieved!

:confused: :confused:

[DCDriver]

If the world's "longest" passenger flight refers to airborne time rather than distance, the L-1649A Starliner holds a number of records that easily surpass those set more recently.
The longest Starliner flight on record was a TWA flight LHR-SFO that took 23hr 19min. And the crew rest was just in front of the props!

...makes a night Larnaca seem civilised

[gofer]

Memory is of the A340 France-AKL flight being followed by an AKL-France going the rest of the way round which is actually a few NM longer (10392 to be exact according to the 1st link below). The plane had 2 or even 3 crews and lots of extra bladder fuel tanks. The departure and arrival was LBG

Again from failing memory, the time was somewhere around 21-22h. So I went and found the following link (http://www.ifrance.com/vwr/challenge.htm) but as you will see not all the data is there.

There is also some more data here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1998/11/98/great_balloon_challenge/newsid_299000/299568.stm) from which I would quote:
The longest non-stop flight by a commercial airliner was 18,545km (10,007 nautical miles) from Auckland, New Zealand, to Paris, in 21 hours 46 minutes in June 1993, set by the Airbus Industrie A340-200. which does not quite agree with the first source as far as the NM go.:rolleyes: ;)

Nearly 9 years ago all of that, and only now do we get the A340-500 and A340-600's:cool:

[newswatcher]

Malaysia Airlines' first Trent 800-powered Boeing 777 gained the record for the world's longest flight by a commercial aircraft in April 1997. The flight from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur covered a distance of 10,823 nautical miles and also set a record of 890 kilometres (553 miles) per hour for the fastest speed around the world eastbound.

[InitRef]

Longest in terms of distance nm?
Longest flight time?
Longest scheduled non-stop roundtrip - blah blah blah.

In terms of distance - it used be UAL JFK-HKG (discontinued) and now held by Continental EWR-HKG.
ATL-JNB is longest one-way - I think the westbound stops somewhere for fuel.

[SK]

What path did that flight take? The great circle distance is 7012nm. Did it fly all the way to the US east coast and then turned around or something?

Malaysia Airlines' first Trent 800-powered Boeing 777 gained the record for the world's longest flight by a commercial aircraft in April 1997. The flight from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur covered a distance of 10,823 nautical miles and also set a record of 890 kilometres (553 miles) per hour for the fastest speed around the world eastbound.

[Hot Rod]

Regarding the Airbus Industrie A340-200 that flew Auckland - Paris in 1993:

I think I´ve seen somewhere that they had extra fuel tanks (in cargo hold) on that aircraft, more than a standard A340-200.

[gofer]

Can't find the trace at this time, but I'm certain that there were quite a few extra bladder tanks on board - most of the cabin was full of instruments also. So very non standard.

[compressor stall]

If longest means length of time in the air, then the Qantas Catalina flying boats ex Perth (the Aussie one) during ww2 did 28+ hour sectors from Perth to Ceylon (Sri Lanka)... It could only carry about 3 pax and a bit of mail, and if it had an engine failure in the first 5 hours of flight it had to ditch.... :eek: These flights were known as the "double sunrise" flights and made in total radio silence!

Can't imagine that getting approval from the authorities nowdays!

[rsoman]

I remember that Canada 3000 just before they ceased operations had started a Toronto Delhi non stop via the polar route using a A340. This must have been the longest scheduled passenger flight in recent times especially since from what I heard, the russian overflying permission did not come through in time and the inaugral flights lasted something close to 18 hours! Since the flight was half empty, I guess the endurance shouldnt have been a problem.

[SuperRanger]

WRT, Malaysia Airlines B777 Speed and Distance Record...

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1997/news.release.970401a.html

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1997/news.release.970402.html

SR

[gofer]

I stand corrected - and look forward to the A340-500 & 600's attempts.:) :cool:

[innuendo]

RSOMAN, are you sure that Canada 3000 actualy operated that flight? I was under the impression that they ceased ops before they ever operated the route. I must say I was curious about the potential economics of that route let alone the practicalities from an operational standpoint.

[rsoman]

Innuendo
I can confirm that Canada 3000 operated the DEL nonstop briefly
they ceased operations. The inaugral flight was widely reported in the local media here (I am based further south in the country). Also since part of work involves liasion with the local unit of IATA, I had come accross a few authorisations for the travel agents to
issue tickets on the above route. As far as I know the 2T (Canada 3000) operations to BOM never started (they were to fly via Gatwick for their BOM route) but their DEL operations did start, albeit for a very brief period.
Regardingthe operational practicalities, I am afraid I am not able to comment since my area of expertise do not extend into the same, howver from a commercial point of view, please keep in mind that Canada has a a large number of people of Indian orign, a big majority of whom are from North India and for whom DELHI is the major gateway.Also with Air Canada already having pulled out of India before 2T came in, this market was primarily served by the US/European carriers as well as Singapore Airlines and Thai from the West Coast. However all these involved a stopover enroute. Also interesting is that United had alreay announced (and hd their schedules published) for a non stop DEL Chicago route which I guess must have been a similar one to that of 2T.
Howver unfortunately the events of 9/11 forced UA to pull out of India altogether before these non stops could actually operate.
Taking into account these factors, I guess some other player might operate once things stabilise.
Cheers!
RSO

[exeng]

The QF 747-400 uplifted full tanks of special high density fuel in addition to carrying only a few members of the press. A good means of advertising at the time I suppose.


Regards
Exeng