World’s longest flight lands in New York from Singapore

The world’s longest commercial flight landed in New York from Singapore on Friday, surpassing the previous record by 12 minutes.

Singapore Airlines premiered the non-stop flight from Singapore to New York that covers 16,700 kilometres and lasted a whopping 17 hours 52 minutes.

The flight unseated Qatar Airways from the current record for the world’s longest flight, a 17-hour 40-minute marathon journey from Doha to Auckland.

The plane took off on Thursday at 11.37 p.m. (1537 GMT) on an Airbus A350-900ULR and landed at Newark airport the following day at 5.29 a.m. (0929 GMT).

The plane was designed with a two-class layout that features 67 business class and 94 premium economy class seats, so no passengers would be stuck in cramped economy seats during the ultra-long-haul flight.

According to the airline’s website, one-way tickets from Singapore to Newark will set customers back around 3,500 Singapore dollars (around 2,500 dollars) for premium economy, or 7,500 Singapore dollars for business class.

The route will initially be served three times a week, with daily operations expected to begin from October 18 onwards.

(dpa/NAN)