WSJ has an excellent break down of the world’s longest flight, in coach: Sydney to Dallas. The journey takes 15 hours, the plane travels at 600 miles an hour, and the distance covered is 8,800 miles. The longest flight I’ve ever taken, which was more like space travel than flying, was between Atlanta and Johannesburg. Though not as great a distance as the one between Sydney and Dallas, I recall it taking 16 hours. Indeed, the flight was so long that a part of me is still on it, still flying through those shifting twilights (bright white clouds below night stars, clear blue sky above night clouds), still seeing the endless ocean below, still approaching the coast of Africa.
- This flight was from Madrid to DC
Huh. I could’ve sworn the Newark-Singapore flight was longer.
I’ve been on LA to Sydney. 14 hours. The weirdest part is being 7 hours in and realizing you still have seven hours to go.
but… free beer!
that winglet sure looks like Aer Lingus to me, so that trip may have been from Madrid to DC but that flight wasn’t… perhaps MAD to DUB or DUB to IAD?
myr – the United MAD to IAD flight is operated by Aer Lingus. Well spotted.
the new Emirates flight from Seattle will be quite long, but about 1000 miles shorter than DFW-SYD, and run about 16 hours upwind
Tip: Get off the plane at 7pm.
Fiji is beyond amazing.
@1 the singapore flight is longer, but all business class – this is the longest flight with economy service
@4 wow, didn’t know that – you can fly MAD-IAD on Aer Lingus, thanks – that surprises me 🙂 you don’t see many fifth freedom flights succeed.
I’ve done the same flight, Charles. The plane stops in Dakar to refuel though. So I call that 2 flights. Atlanta – Dakar. Dakar – Jo’burg.
Charles, your writing can be so lovely. I’m glad I voted to keep you.
SF to Helsinki – 10 hours. But that LA to Sydney flight is somewhere in my future.
After sailing from Hawaii to Seattle I can never listen to anybody talk about how long air travel is. 16 hours to fly half way around the world is fast, not slow.
if you can count stopping for refueling, as Charles does, then my 24 hour flight from Seattle to Denpasar, with stops to refuel in Hawaii and New Guinea is longer and more boring.
I think it was a charter, not a regularly scheduled flight, though, in about 1980.
@10 Agreed. Funny too.
“Indeed, the flight was so long that a part [of] me is still on it”
Surreal and lovely.
Hey, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-stop_fl…
So, Charles’ ride from Atlanta to Jo’burg was 100 minutes longer, yet 200 miles shorter, than the Sydney to Dallas flight.
“Headwinds are the thief of life.”
– FakeCharlesMudede
I’ve done SF–London in coach, middle isle/middle seat, 11hrs. It was thrombosistastic.
The site you want to look at is http://gc.kls2.com/.
The secret to long flights — I’ve done LA-Sydney and back and LA-Melbourne and back — is Ambien and wine. Not too much wine, even if it is free. But unconsciousness is mandatory. Although the right mix of Ambien and wine can make the little map and air speed screens fascinating for almost half the trip.
My longest flight was LA-Bejing, the headwinds forced us to go north and to refuel in Toyko, it took 25 hrs. It made LA-Københaven, Seattle -Rejkivick, LA -Hong Kong, Seattle-London all feel easy.
My secret has always been water and an occasional stroll. We’re doing LA-Sydney and Brisbane-LA (with the minors) soon. Maybe I should try some wine?