From the Singair website:
28 June 2004
Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) A340-500 ultra long-haul aircraft will take off today on its inaugural non-stop flight from Singapore to New York.
Flight SQ22 will depart from Singapore Changi Airport at 1205 hours and is scheduled to arrive in New York at 1830 hours local time on the same day. The flight will traverse a distance of close to 9,000 nautical miles (about 16,600km) over the North Pacific, to set a new record for the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight.
The return flight, SQ21, departing from New York’s Newark Airport at 2300 hours local time, will arrive in Singapore two days later at 0535 hours.
The non-stop Singapore to New York service will beat the existing record set on 3 February 2004 with the launch of SIA’s non-stop service between Singapore and Los Angeles.
“The flights will take an average of 18 hours in each direction