An Airbus A350-900UL has set a new world record for the world’s longest flight. Last week, Singapore Airlines flew one of its ultra-long-range Airbus jets from its home country to New York. With a distance of 9,521, that makes it the world’s longest flight.
Previously, the world’s longest flight was a 9,032-mile route connecting Auckland, New Zealand and Doha, Qatar. The new flight performed by Singapore Airlines with its Airbus A350-900UL adds almost 500 miles to this flight, which is pretty impressive to say the least. According to an article by CNN, this flight marks a new milestone in commercial aviation by becoming the world’s longest nonstop route in the industry.
If you’re planning to fly from Singapore to New York via this record-setting route, though, you should prepare yourself ahead of time. Not only is the flight geographically long, it’s also long in terms of time. The route for the previous longest flight took about 18 hours, whereas this new route takes about 19 hours. Of course, that’s a substantial amount of time sitting in your seat waiting to land. Anyone who’s thinking about booking a flight on this route should consider bringing a light-blocking eye mask, neck pillow as well as some form of entertainment. Otherwise, they may find themselves with nothing to do for quite some time.
How was Singapore Airlines able to break the world record for the longest nonstop flight? This was all thanks to the A350-900UL. Designed and manufactured by Airbus, the A350-900UL is an ultra-long-range version of Airbus’s existing A350. According to Wikipedia, the A350-900UL has an increased fuel capacity of 165,000 liters, whereas the standard variant has a fuel capacity of 141,000 liters of fuel. This enables the A350-900UL to fly for up to 19 hours nonstop. Airbus first rolled out the A350-900UL in February 2018 for testing. On April 23, 2018, it performed its first flight.
Singapore Airlines has actually had the A350-900UL for nearly a month now. The airline company received the first delivery of the A350-900UL in September. However, it wasn’t until last week when it officially flew the A350-900UL on the world’s longest route. “Today’s delivery is a milestone for Airbus and Singapore Airlines, as together we open a new chapter in non-stop air travel,” said Airbus CEO Tom Enders when speaking about the new A350-900UL.
Singapore Airlines is expected to offer the record-setting nonstop flight route from Singapore to New York with a maximum passenger capacity of 170 to 250 per flight.
