The longest flight in the world right now is from Perth to London, clocking in at roughly 17.5 hours. But that’s all going to change this week when Singapore Airlines starts flying from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey. Total flight time? Just under 19 hours.
The flights start on Thursday, October 11, and will run three times a week with the new Airbus A350-900 ULR. Singapore Airlines used to run the same route using the Airbus A340-500, but with just 100 seats the airline wasn’t making any real money flying such an inefficient route. The airline stopped flying the route from Singapore to New Jersey in 2013.
As CNN points out, the new A350-900 ULR can fly a whopping 17,960km, which is over 3200km further than the standard A350.
But how will passengers like being stuck in a plane for 19 hours? Airbus touts the aircraft’s latest design features as making the entire experience more friendly for consumers.
From CNN:
All A350s share Airbus’ design philosophy that makes the aircraft cabin feel more like a room, rather than a long tube. The plane has high ceilings, sophisticated LED lighting, almost vertical sidewalls and a low noise level.
These features, along with a maximum in-cabin simulated altitude of just 6000 feet, all combine to provide an improved passenger experience, according to [Florent Petteni, Airbus’ aircraft interiors marketing director].
“You may not exactly pinpoint why it’s so comfortable and so nice to be flying on this aeroplane, but everything was done on purpose.”
As someone who has taken his fair share of flights from Perth to different spots in the United States I can tell you it’s incredibly unpleasant to be flying for over 24 hours with layovers in Sydney and Los Angeles. And I don’t think taller ceilings would’ve made the experience any more pleasant. But then again I’ve never been on an A350-900 ULR.
[CNN]