More than a century after the first commercial flight covered just 17 kilometers between St. Petersburg and Tampa, airlines now operate nonstop services that travel thousands of miles and last over 16 hours. Many of these ultra long-haul flights involve the United States and use aircraft such as the Airbus A350-900ULR, Boeing 777-200LR, A350-1000, and Boeing 787-9.
Singapore Airlines operates the longest widebody route from the US: New York JFK to Singapore Changi. According to Cirium, this service covers nearly 9,500 miles and is recognized as the world’s longest nonstop scheduled passenger flight. The airline uses an Airbus A350-900ULR configured with 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy seats. There is no economy class due to operational constraints on such a lengthy route.
“The Star Alliance member operates a daily flight in each direction, with an average block time of around 19 hours and 15 minutes. This includes taxi time, airborne duration, and minor delays.” The second-longest US route is also run by Singapore Airlines between Newark Liberty International Airport and Singapore using the same aircraft type.
Looking ahead, Qantas plans to launch new ultra-long-haul services through Project Sunrise, including nonstop flights from Sydney to New York and Melbourne to New York using the Airbus A350-1000. The Sydney–New York route is expected to cover nearly 9,900 miles once introduced.
Currently, only two routes from the US exceed 9,000 miles: both are operated by Singapore Airlines between New York or Newark and Singapore. Several other routes surpass 8,000 miles:
– Qantas’ Dallas Fort Worth–Melbourne service covers about 8,973 miles four times a week with a Boeing 787-9.
– Air New Zealand’s New York JFK–Auckland service covers roughly 8,813 miles with three weekly flights.
– Qantas also serves JFK–Auckland five times per week with its own Boeing 787-9s.
– United Airlines runs Houston Intercontinental–Sydney (8,587 miles) using a Boeing 787-9.
– Philippines Airlines flies New York JFK–Manila (8,513 miles) with an Airbus A350.
Qantas restored double-decker operations on its Dallas Fort Worth–Sydney route in August by operating four weekly Airbus A380 flights alongside three Boeing 787-9 services. Starting January next year, this will become a daily A380 operation for peak summer travel to Australia. Emirates continues deploying its A380s on long US routes like Los Angeles–Dubai (8,334 miles).
Qatar Airways operates the longest Airbus A350-1000 route from San Francisco to Doha at about 8,301 miles using a configuration of 46 Qsuites and 281 economy seats. Cathay Pacific’s daily New York JFK–Hong Kong service (about 8,070 miles) uses a Boeing 777-300ER; Emirates employs this aircraft type for its Dallas/Fort Worth–Dubai flight (about 8,030 miles).
