The world’s first commercial flight took off from St Petersburg, Florida on January 1^st 1914, and landed about 30 minutes later in Tampa, Florida, covering a distance of 17km. Since then, advances in aviation technology have made it possible to fly thousands of kilometers non-stop, and as of July 2023, the list of the world’s top 10 longest flights includes destinations in Europe, Asia, North America, and the Middle East.

 Using OAG’s airline schedules data, our table of the longest routes ranks commercial flights by Great Circle Distance (GCD) in kilometers. GCD is a way of measuring a flight’s length, taking into account the fact that the Earth is spherical, and therefore the shortest route for a flight to take is not a straight line drawn from point to point on a 2D map.

The Longest Commercial Flight Leaderboard

 1. The World’s Longest Flight: New York (JFK) to Singapore Changi (SIN)

Distance (GCD): 15,332km

Airline: Singapore Airlines

Aircraft: Airbus A350-900

New York John F Kennedy Airport – Singapore Changi is currently the longest commercial flight it is possible to book. At 15,332km, this route has been at the top of the table since 2021, and takes an average of 18 hours and 40 minutes to complete.

2. Newark Liberty International (EWR) to Singapore Changi (SIN)

Distance (GCD): 15,329km

Airline: Singapore Airlines

Aircraft: Airbus A350-900

Offering direct links to other Asian countries and Australia, Singapore Changi also features in the second longest flight route of 2023. In fact, the Newark – Changi route is just 3km shorter than the longest route, and until Singapore Airlines introduced flights from JFK to Singapore this was the world’s longest route from 2004-2013 and again from 2018-2020.

3. Perth (PER) – London Heathrow (LHR)

Distance (GCD): 14,499km

Airline: Qantas Airways

Aircraft: Boeing 787-9

With a scheduled flight time of 17 hours and 45 minutes, this is the only route in our top 10 that features a European airport, since Qantas’s Darwin – Heathrow route, which held 8^th place last year, is not currently in operation.

4. Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) – Melbourne (MEL)

Distance (GCD): 14,468km

Airline: Qantas Airways

Aircraft: Boeing 787-9

Dallas Fort Worth has been a permanent fixture on our monthly list of busiest airports this year, offering Australian visitors onward flights to 193 US destinations. The flight from Dallas to Melbourne is scheduled for 17 hours 35 minutes.

5. Auckland International (AKL) – New York (JFK)

Distance (GCD): 14,209km

Airline: Air New Zealand, Qantas

Aircraft: Boeing 787-9

Launched in 2022, this is the first Air New Zealand route flying non-stop to New York. The scheduled flight time is 16 hours 15 minutes. In 2023, Qantas entered the AKL-JFK market, introducing some competition for Air New Zealand.

6. Auckland International (AKL) – Dubai International (DXB)

Distance (GCD): 14,193km

Airline: Emirates

Aircraft: Airbus A380-800

In 2016, this was the world’s longest flight at 14,193km, and the fact that it’s taken just seven years to move down to 6^th place on the list demonstrates how quickly things can change in the world of aviation! The flight is scheduled to last 17 hours and 5 minutes, landing in one of the world’s busiest global airports.

7. Los Angeles (LAX) – Singapore Changi (SIN)

Distance (GCD): 14,096km

Airline: Singapore Airlines

Aircraft: Airbus A350-900

Singapore Changi Airport makes its third and final appearance at number 7 on the list of longest non-stop commercial flights, on a route that was first flown by United Airlines in 2016 and was, at the time, the longest scheduled non-stop flight from the US.

8. Bengaluru (BLR) – San Francisco (SFO)

Distance (GCD): 13,982km

Airline: Air India

Aircraft: Boeing 777-200LR

The 13,982km flight from Bengaluru in Southern India to the US west coast’s San Francisco Airport is the only Air India flight to make it into the top 10, but last month they confirmed orders for 470 new airplanes to add to their fleet, including 70 wide-bodied aircraft, so watch this space.

9. Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) – Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD)

Distance (GCD): 13,802km

Airline: Qantas

Aircraft: Boeing 787-9

A fourth route on the list for Qantas Airways, in 2014 and 2015 this was the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world and clocks in at 13,802km, taking 9^th place in July 2023. This flight crosses the International Date Line, departs in the evening and lasts 16 hours and 45 minutes, which means it arrives in Sydney two days after departure.

10. New York (JFK) - Manila Ninoy Aquino (MNL)

Distance (GCD): 13,691km

Airline: Philippine Airlines

Aircraft: Airbus A350-900

This is one of two routes that make the list in July 2023 but were absent from the top 10 in July 2022, the other being DFW-SYD.  It replaces United’s Houston-Sydney route, which has been changed to a seasonal route and will be back in action in October.

Aircraft On The Longest Routes

Airbus A350-900

Range: Up to 18,000km

Engine: Rolls-Royce Trent XWB

Capacity: 300-500 passengers

Up until as recently as 2016, the world’s longest flights were flown by four-engine aircraft, but in July 2023, four out of ten of the longest routes operate on the wide-bodied, twin-engine Airbus 350-90: JFK-SIN, EWR-SIN, LAX-SIN and JFK-MNL. Since its entry into service in 2015, the global A350 fleet has completed more than 1,025,000 flights on more than 1000 routes.

Boeing 787-9

Range: Up to 15,400km

Engine: General Electric GEnx or Rolls-Royce Trent 1000

Capacity: 296 passengers

Another twin-engine aircraft, the Boeing 787-9, otherwise known as the Dreamliner, also flies four out of ten of the longest nonstop flights in July 2023: LHR-PER, DFW-MEL, AKL-JFK and DFW-SYD. In addition to Qantas and Air New Zealand, more than 70 other airlines count the B787-9 in their fleets, including All Nippon Airways, which has 40, the most of any airline.

Airbus A380-800 Passenger

Range: Up to 15,700km

Engine: Rolls-Royce Trent 900, Engine Alliance GP7000

Capacity: 500 + passengers

Unlike the other aircraft on this list, the Airbus A380-800 has four engines. It’s currently the world’s largest passenger airliner with its double-deck design. Production of the A380 ended in 2021, but it is still a favored aircraft and as long-haul travel returns post-pandemic, more A380s are taking to the skies again.

Boeing 777-200LR

Range: Up to 15,840km

Engine: General Electric GE90

Capacity: Up to 301 passengers

Introduced in 2006, the Boeing 777-200LR is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner. It can fly up to 15,840km non-stop, making it one of the longest-range commercial airliners in the world. However, due to the size of its fuel tanks, the 777-200LR is heavy to fly and proved not to be all that suitable for long-haul travel. Only 61 were ever made.

Upcoming Record-Breaking Flights

The next flight set to break the record for the longest nonstop air journey will likely happen in 2025, when Qantas plans to operate flights from New York to Sydney using a specially designed Airbus A350. The airline has included a ‘wellness’ space on board and has been researching ways to help travelers tackle jet lag, which will be important because the 16,020km flight will last more than 20 hours.

As markets worldwide continue to recover from the damage of the Covid-19 pandemic, long-haul travel has been one of the last areas to make progress, but it is slowly recovering. We will almost certainly see movement in the list of the top 10 longest routes in the future as new routes are added to the schedules and retired routes are re-introduced.

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