There appears to be a new contender for the world’s longest flight. Qantas Airways will fly from Sydney to London starting in 2025, a total of 10,576 miles or about 20 hours in the air.
Qantas has been working on the route to Heathrow Airport in London for six years and even dubbed it ‘Project Sunrise’, touting it on its website as “the final frontier in aviation.”
Qantas plans to utilize an Airbus A350-1000 and aims to carry around 350 to 410 passengers. Apparently, research since 2017 shows that there is a market for such a flight.
Since late 2021 the top three longest flights in the world are:
- Singapore Airlines Flight SQ22/SQ21 from New York’s Newark airport to Singapore, covering a distance of 9,534 miles (15,343 kilometers) with a duration of approximately 18 hours and 45 minutes, with an Airbus A350-900ULR.
- Qatar Airways Flight QR921/QR920 from Auckland to Doha, covering a distance of 9,032 miles (14,529 kilometers) with a duration of approximately 18 hours and 20 minutes, with a Boeing 777-200LR.
- Qantas Flight QF7879/QF7878 from Perth to London, covering a distance of 9,009 miles (14,498 kilometers) with a duration of approximately 17 hours and 20 minutes, with a Boeing 787-9.
Previously, Singapore Airlines held the record since 2016 for the world’s longest flight with a trip from Singapore to the New York area at more than 9,500 miles, flying an Airbus A340-500. In the last 26 years, the title of the world’s longest flight has changed hands seven times and has increased 33 percent as planes have gotten bigger, faster and have more capacity.
