Ultra long-haul

Ultra long-haul refers to the flight length of a flight being "ultra long". While there is no universally accepted definition for what is considered ultra long haul, the term generally refers to flights that are 12 hours or longer.[1] These flights usually follow a great circle route, often passing over a polar region. In some cases, non-stop ultra long-haul routes could be less preferable to stopover flights as passengers on ultra long-haul non-stop flights must sit in the aircraft for many consecutive hours.[2] A low oil price environment would favour the establishment of ultra long-haul flights.The current longest commercial flight in the word is Singapore Airlines' SQ22 which flies from Singapore to Newark [3]

History

From 1943 to 1945, Qantas operated "The Double Sunrise", a weekly 5,650-kilometre (3,050 nmi) flight between Perth, Australia and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), with average flight times of 28 (maximum of 33) hours using a Consolidated PBY Catalina.[4][4][5]

On 1–2 October 1957, a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the ultimate piston-engine airliner in terms of range and endurance, flew the inaugural 8,640-kilometre (4,670 nmi) London–San Francisco polar route in 23 hours, 19 minutes.[6]

In June 1961, El Al began a 9,270 kilometres (5,010 nmi) route from New York City to Tel Aviv. Previously tested in December 1957 on trial runs with a Bristol Britannia, the scheduled flight used a Boeing 707 and averaged 9 hours, 33 minutes.[7]

In February 1963, Aeroflot started Moscow to Havana flight via Murmansk with its Tu-114D. It is around 16 hours from Havana to Murmansk, the longest for turboprop scheduled flight.

In August 1967, Aerolineas Argentinas established its non-stop Boeing 707 service on a 10,062-kilometre (5,433 nmi) route between Madrid and Buenos Aires with a flight time of 12 hours.[8]

The Aerolineas Argentinas route was the longest scheduled flight by distance until 1976, when the Boeing 747SP entered service. In April 1976, Pan American World Airways set the new record with its 10,854-kilometre (5,861 nmi) New York City (John F. Kennedy International Airport)–Tokyo route. In December, the airline set another record with Sydney–San Francisco, covering 11,937 kilometres (6,445 nmi).

In May 1988, El Al introduced its long-haul passenger flight from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles, completing its 12,189-kilometre (6,582 nmi) journey in 13 hours, 41 minutes.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union eventually opened the airspace over Russia, allowing new circumpolar routes to come into use for commercial airlines.[9] On 1 March 2001, Continental Airlines launched a 13,578-kilometre (7,332 nmi) non-stop service from Newark to Hong Kong—the first non-stop long-haul route for any airline with the flying duration exceeding 16 hours.[9] A few days later, United Airlines started its own New York City (John F. Kennedy International Airport) to Hong Kong service, adding 3 kilometers to the distance.[9]

On 3 February 2004, Singapore Airlines introduced a 14,113-kilometre (7,620 nmi) flight from Singapore to Los Angeles, scheduled for 16 hours, 30 minutes in the summer, 15 hours, 35 minutes in the winter. It took 17 hours, 20 minutes in summer and 18 hours, 5 minutes in winter on the return trip.

In June 2004, Singapore Airlines introduced Flight SQ 21, using the Airbus A340-500 on a 15,344-kilometre (8,285 nmi) great circle route from Newark to Singapore, passing within 130 kilometres (70 nmi) of the North Pole, taking a little over 18 hours.[10] This was immediately surpassed by return Flight SQ 22, which flew the current record of 16,600-kilometre (9,000 nmi) back to Newark.[11] Despite the greater distance, Flight SQ 22 averaged a slightly shorter 17 hours, 45 minutes because of prevailing high-altitude winds.[12]

In late 2000s/early 2010s, rapidly rising fuel prices, coupled with an economic crisis, resulted in cancellation of many ultra-long haul non-stop flights.[2] This included the services provided by Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Newark and Los Angeles,[13][14] as well as similar lengthy flights from New York to both Mumbai and Bangkok.[15]

However, in recent years the fuel prices have fallen back and more economical aircraft have been introduced to the market. The economics of ultra long-haul flights improved with more and more distant markets being served by new services. On 2 December 2015, Air India launched a nonstop flight from Delhi to San Francisco, which is currently the world's longest flight by distance at 15128 kilometres (8,168 nmi).[16] Similar lengthy flights have been launched from Auckland to both Doha and Dubai in the past 2 years,[17] as well as new double-daily service by United and Singapore Airlines from San Francisco to Singapore.[18] United Airlines and Singapore Airlines are restarting their Los Angeles nonstop flight in 2018 and the latter is also restarting nonstop flights to New York in 2018, which would be the longest flight ever operated at 15,357 kilometres (8,292 nmi).[19][20]

Airliners

The longest range Airbus jetliner in service is the A350 XWB Ultra Long Range, capable of flying up to 9,700 nmi (18,000 km). The A380 is capable of flying 15,200 km (8,200 nmi) with 544 passengers. The A350-900 can fly 15,000 km (8,100 nmi) with 325 passengers.[21]

The longest range Boeing airliner in service is the 777-200LR Worldliner, which can cover 15,843 km (8,555 nmi) with 317 passengers.[22] The announced B777-8X will be capable of flying 16,090 km (8,690 nmi) with 365 passengers.[23]

New airliners like the A330neo, A350 and B787 enable economically sustainable non-stop ultra long haul operations on thinner routes with fewer demands, because all the previous planes capable of providing non-stop ultra long haul services are larger and thus more expensive to operate compared to these planes, which in turn require more tickets to be sold and more demands between both destinations to maintain the profitability of those service.[24]

On 25 August 2017, Qantas challenged Airbus and Boeing to extend the range of their long haul aircraft to enable flights from the east coast of Australia to Europe or New York by 2022.[25] The Kangaroo Route between London Heathrow and Sydney Airport is 17,016 km (9,188 nmi) long, a 20h flight at Mach 0.8.[26] Both airframers want to avoid a specific design and Airbus sees a market for 50-100 airliners as other operators could join Qantas, for which those could reach the whole world non-stop instead of 70% of its population. Aimed at business travelers, ultra-long haul flights can charge a 20% premium over one-stop direct flights.[27]

Planned long flights

Iran Air had planned a non-stop 12,222-kilometre (6,599 nmi) Tehran–Los Angeles flight, which never materialized due to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. It suspended in November 1979 its 9,850-kilometre (5,320 nmi) scheduled non-stop service between New York and Tehran, flown eastward in 11h 15min, begun after its 747SP delivery on 12 March 1976.

Emirates is studying to start a direct Dubai-San Juan flight.[28] It would be the longest non-stop flight from the Caribbean with 12,044 km (6,503 nmi).[29]

Philippine Airlines is replacing its A340-300 with an A350-900HGW high gross weight version available from 2017 enabling non-stop Manila-New York without payload limitations in both directions,[30] a 13,700 km (7,400 nmi) flight.[31]

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ "Far Out Flights: Airlines Race to the Longest Route- Airline Passenger Experience". 21 March 2016.
    2. 1 2 "A new era of 'ultra-long-haul' aviation".
    3. ↑ smart, Map Happy Travel (16 March 2016). "Length or Duration? The Fight for the World's Longest Flight".
    4. 1 2 Defence, Australian Government, Department of. "RAAF Museum: Royal Australian Air Force". www.airforce.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
    5. ↑ Catanzaro, Joseph (28 December 2010). "Heroic squadron loses last pilot". The West Australia. Retrieved 28 December 2010.
    6. ↑ Peter J. Marson, The Lockheed Constellation. Tonbridge, Kent, England: Air-Britain (Historians), 2007
    7. ↑ "EL AL Israel Airlines celebrates its 65th anniversary". El Al. 15 November 2013.
    8. ↑ "Buenos Aires-Madrid advertisement". ABC.es. 28 September 1967. p. 20. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
    9. 1 2 3 "From Newark Over the North Pole". New York Times. 30 March 2001. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
    10. ↑ "Singapore Airlines 21". FlightAware. 23 November 2013. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
    11. ↑ Agence France Presse (28 June 2004). "SIA sets new world record with direct flight to New York". Singapore Window. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
    12. ↑ "Singapore Airlines 22". FlightAware. 23 November 2013. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
    13. ↑ Doyle, Andrew (24 October 2012). "SIA to drop nonstop USA flights as Airbus buys back A340s". flightglobal.com.
    14. ↑ Mike Tierney (25 November 2013). "Last Call for the Long Haul From Singapore to Newark". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
    15. ↑ "Air India W10 Long-Haul Operation Changes: Update 1". Airline Route. 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
    16. ↑ Morris, Hugh (2016-10-26). "Air India breaks Emirates' record for world's longest flight". Traveller. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
    17. ↑ "Qatar Airways' longest flight lands in Auckland". New Zealand Herald. 2017-02-06. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
    18. ↑ "Introducing non-stop flight to San Francisco on A350". www.singaporeair.com. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
    19. ↑ "Distance from Singapore to New York | SIN to JFK". www.airmilescalculator.com. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
    20. ↑ "Singapore Air is again flying nonstop to USA from Singapore". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
    21. ↑ "First Ultra Long Range A350 XWB makes its debut". Airbus. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
    22. ↑ "777 Characteristics". Boeing.
    23. ↑ "777-8-characteristics". Boeing.
    24. ↑ Max Kingsley-Jones (22 September 2014). "New widebodies are 'network-planning game changers'". Flightglobal. Reed Business Information.
    25. ↑ "New opportunities for direct routes" (PDF). Qantas. 25 August 2017.
    26. ↑ "SYD-LHR". Great Circle Mapper.
    27. ↑ Jamie Freed, Tim Hepher (June 3, 2018). "Jetmakers race to meet Sydney-London non-stop challenge". reuters.
    28. ↑ "Aumentan los vuelos directos a la isla". El Nuevo Dia. 3 Mar 2016.
    29. ↑ "DXB-SJU". Great Circle Mapper.
    30. ↑ "Philippine Airlines' international expansion continues with 5 new destinations, A350-900 HGW order". CAPA Centre for Aviation. 20 Nov 2015.
    31. ↑ "MNL-NYC". Great Circle Mapper.
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