Singapore Airlines re-launches the world's longest flight

For years, the world’s longest flight was held by Singapore Airlines, which connected Singapore Changi (SIN) and Newark Liberty (EWR) airports to New York (in New Jersey to be precise) with an Airbus A340-500. Abandoned in 20313, this route will be revived at the end of 2018 with the entry into operation by Singapore Airlines of its first Airbus A350-900ULR (for Ultra Long Range) capable of flying 20 hours over 18,000 km in one go.

Singapore Airlines narrowly beats Qantas

For some time now, this title has been held by Qantas, which has just relaunched the “kangaroo route” linking Perth to London by Boeing 787-9. The flight lasts 17h20 in one direction and 16h45 in the other.

Record soon to be beaten by Singapore Airlines which will connect Singapore to Newark in 18:30 on the return trip and 17:30 on the outbound trip

How comfortable is an 18-hour flight?

We already talked about it here when Qantas announced the launch of its Perth-London flight: what comfort for such long flights? At TravelGuys we don’t see ourselves cramming our almost 1m90 into an economy seat for 18 hours. As far as health is concerned, we must be close to the acceptable limit in terms of blood circulation, but as far as comfort is concerned, it must quickly become unbearable.

And even in the front classes. Having recently taken a 14h30 flight from London to Jakarta, I can confirm that even in first class, even with a meal-on-demand service, even with a seat-bed and a closed cabin…one starts to get bored.

Singapore Airlines and Qantas responded differently to the question.

No economy class at Singapore Airlines

The Qantas B787s are equipped with 236 seats: 42 suites in business class, 28 in premium economy and 166 in economy.

The Singapore Airlines A350 will carry only 161 passengers: 67 in business and 94 in premium economy. Singapore Airlines has (logically in our opinion) decided to skip the economy class for two reasons: a less dense cabin allows to lighten the plane and gain in autonomy and, allows to maintain an acceptable comfort level. We are convinced that an economy cabin over such a distance makes no sense and Singapore Airlines is proof of this.

Note that the A340 that operated the route previously was operated in “full business”, which can pose a challenge to fill the cabin for a daily flight. A Business/Premium Economy mix is probably the best possible trade-off between load factor, profitability and comfort.

In the meantime, this line breaks the rule that a connecting flight is most of the time cheaper than a direct flight.