Non-stop flights over 17 and even 18 hours have become more common. These ultra-long-haul flights connect major hubs around the world and have redefine the travel experience. Have you flown on one of the longest flights in the world? Maybe you’ve even flown on the longest flight – SQ23/24. We have the current top ten list of longest flights here: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/longest-flights/
Whether it was a smooth journey or a challenging experience, flying for such extended periods offers unique insights into modern aviation, passenger comfort, and the changing dynamics of global travel. Share your experience here and let us know what your trip was like!
26 Responses
Flew that exact flight last year – SIA23/24. Man it was a long way but the A350 is a great machine and made the trip a memorable one. Marty
Yeah, the A350 is literally god tier when it comes to passenger comfort and efficiency.
I also flew on the same flight 8 years ago when I was 5, flying out of SIN to JFK. Really long flight but service and food was great, super friendly cabin crew, and great entertainment on the IFE-but those are just at this point vague memories.
Recently did AKL – DOH in business. I didn’t want to ever land.
I think my longest flight was Dubay-Auckland, and it was on emirates. I think it was in A320, it bas two levels. It was good as a flight, but it could be better if I was not in the babys area, which means no sleep for 17 hours.
My last was auckland-brisbane-doha, change airplain doha-copenhagen. Small aircraft, Ethiad airline, second time i used it and hope last time. Doha Airport really not welcome at all.
I am 74,W, travelling alone for about 50 years,impossible for me to pay business class.
My point is, when I search for buy a ticket I can’t identify which kind of airplain will it be, a wolkswagen or a BMW. How can I became, a better, conscious buyer? Where can I find the info about the aeroplanes in order to not expend 24 hours of travel in he’ll?
I have never flown it but is it worth it????
Let me know!!!
✈️👍👍
We recently flow to Paris from Perth in Australia, 17.5 hrs, the flight left Perth early evening and by the time we had settled in an evening meal arrived, followed by a movie! I woke up as we flow over Rome! Another movie and we landed!
Much easier than having a stop over mid way!
The Qantas staff, were great! Definitely the way to go!
Perth-London last year. It was utterly miserable in economy, and I don’t think I’d do it again. I’ll take a stop every time, unless travelling in business.
UA2 SIN-SFO
Just returned from NZ (to Frankfurt) My longest flight …. It was 18 h on a A380 Emirates business class. Very comfortable seats, outstanding kindness of staff and great food. A bar and pajamas included☺️. Time passsed so quickly using their ICE (inflight programmes) . Great experience
Just coming back from 18 h flight from NZ to Frankfurt on a A380 Emirates in business class. Seats very comfortable, staff and food was outstanding. A bar on upper deck, pajamas and a great inflight program made the time pass quickly. Great experience
I just flew Hanoi to Paris on Vietnam airlines’ A350. The flight was crowded but we managed to get lucky with an empty middle seat. Only 13 hours (an amazing statement considering the other flights in these comments), and I slept most of the way through it. I don’t like modern entertainment so I just listen to music and podcasts. The internet didn’t work which was frankly a real rip off.
I flew from Dallas to Sydney Australia great flight would do it again
heb in oktober van amsterdam naar tokio gevlogen met air india vertrokken van schiphol 4 oktober op een zaterdag en kwamen aan in tokio aan maandag avond laat wij vlogen met een super constelletion 4 motorig dit was in 1958 het regende ook nog was wel blij dat wij er waren wij gingen met een bemanning voor een nieuwe tanker die gebouwd was in het zuiden van japan met de trein en een boot reis er nog achteraan.
My wife and I flew from Copenhagen to Philadelphia 8 hours last September not longest flight but because of a very rude flight attendant it seemed like the longest flight ever on American Airlines. I wrote to them and got a formal letter of apology back!
An 3 day advice received from Qantas offering direct Heathrow to Perth insread of booked Heathrow Hong Kong Perth..We opted for the 787 Heathrow to Perth..Great flight…Internal envvironment comfortable..
Would do it again…
Per -kl-lhr. Loved every second on Malaysian. Except they wouldn’t accept responsibility for a broken wheelchair
This flight isn’t the longest but still long. I flew on Air Canada AC5 Montreal to Toyko on a 777-300 it was about 13 hours flight. It was a very smooth ride on the 777. Unfortunately I was stuck in economy, I enjoyed the view over the wing but it was quite cramped and i was pretty miserable. This was my first time on a wide body aircraft and I assumed it would be more spacious but I guess they just had more room to put more seats. Service was good and flight attendants were nice. It was a very memorable trip, one day I hope to make more long journeys like this but maybe in business class.
Flew Auckland Singapore Air NZ and then Lufthansa on to Germany. This is Star Alliance.
All in Economy Plus.
This class is very average with seats not much better than Economy but price considerably more.
Advertising on this class is not factual and is considerably overpriced.
My wife and I will not consider this class again.
Also we were destined for Greek Islands and the Star Alliance link to Lufthansa took us many miles off course to land at the Lufthansa airport.
We would have been far better to have flown to say London or Paris and then on to Greece.
The airport at Kos Greek Islamd has international landing facilities so be very careful and review reply what route you may be offered!!!!
Two years ago I went from FRA to SYD via SFO. 13 hours to California and another 15 hours to Australia, with only 1,5 hours on the ground in SFO. Just enough to get behind immigration and find the gate. Shortly after that boarding began again. We were going on the same plane (B777-300ER) on United Airlines that we had from Frankfurt. It was only three years old with the newest cabin including Polaris Business Class. But I went on regular economy. The service was a big surprise for me having flown UA for a couple of times before with a rather average or below service experience. The food was really good, the crew was looking after us very professionally. It was a fully booked flight but it didn’t feel packed at all. Same on the way back via MUC (this time with an B777-200. The plane was 26 years old but had a rather new cabin interior). Very friendly staff, lots of water and juices – time went by very smoothly. My first trip to Australia went via SIN with Qantas and it was shorter. But crossing the pacific ocean was an experience I wouldn’t have missed.
Up until the COVID debacle turned recreational travel upside down, wife and self used to fly annually from our home town airport NPE (Napier, New Zealand) to MAD (Madrid, Spain) and return about six weeks later.
This isn’t any particularly astounding achievement … a short local flight followed by two solid long haul sectors, then return, but it does have a few fascinating features.
1: It’s very close to as far as you can go without starting to return to the starting point.
2: The domestic leg from our home town NPE to our international departure airport AKL is a short(ish) 177 NM. Our usual carrier (Cathay) stops in HKG (Hong Kong) … this is close to a straight line (great circle) track to MAD. If you take out the HKG intermediate stop and look at the direct Great Circle track AKL-MAD, you find AKL-MAD heads off to the West via mostly Russia then Scandinavia, France. But if you take out the short domestic hop and look at the Great Circle track NPE-MAD, you find the Great Circle track heads out to the East via overhead Alaska/Canada, Greenland and Ireland. That’s VERY close to opposite sides of the planet.
3: If you ‘force’ a return flight via the ‘other’ side of the planet … say MAD-CPT (Cape Town)-NPE, you get a direct distance of only 63NM more than the outbound leg NPE-AKL-HKG-MAD. That’s a 31.5NM ‘offset’ and that’s VERY, VERY close to the start point Antipode (exact opposite side of the planet).
If you’re interested in the Great Circle tracks your air travels (generally) follow and haven’t already discovered the ‘Great Circle Maps’ app’, try it. It’s a great partner for ‘Flight Radar 24’. Displays your air travel tracks on a globe and, alternatively, on larger screen devices, on a standard Mercator projection map. Free, beautifully ‘clean’, and simple to use.
Just enter the route you’re interested in, in ICAO airport designators (if you know them), or plain English (handles American simplified English just fine). Select the correct airport from the drop down list that appears, construct your route and press ‘GO’ … for a wonderfully simple presentation of your route sectors, sector distances and a total route distance. Need more information? Just ‘tap’ the route and it expands to give more information such as the total distance without intermediate stops, how much distance the intermediate stops add, estimated sector flight times. Change between nm, sm and km with ease.
Wonderful little app’. Been around for nearly 10 years … thanks Markus. Not on the ‘App Store’ as far as I can see (haven’t checked the Google/Android equivalent). Just ‘dial it up’ in a Safari or Google/Chrome search, open it and ‘save to (an icon on) your desktop’ … (the little square box with the ‘up’ arrow just to the right of the “greatcirclemap.com” address line at the top of your page) … (Firefox doesn’t appear to have a ‘save to desktop’ option).
Enjoy!
I’ve flown several times uk to NZ love the A380 but for me I’ve found staying in Dubai terminal hotel for a few hours sure helps
It was May last year week after storm not a free eat on the plane left, I did Emirates A380 Manchester to Dubai 7 ish hours
4 to 5 hours hotel in Dubai terminal 3 but a shower & comfort there spar & gym for fit is great 2 for me being disabled amazing done 5 times over years but after 1st trip with Emirates we discovered terminal hotel, it’s got a spa / gym if fitter I’m disabled so a god send to me!
Dubai to Auckland 17 ish hours
Then Auckland to Whanganui about an hour flight
For me it’s the best route! We did do via USA once many years ago 1999 Manchester to LA, LA to Auckland , Auckland to Dunedin not much difference in flying but I found it USA immigration in transit a hostile experience going I felt I a criminal & I swore I’d never go that way again so never repeated that was British Airways/ Quanta’s but it was 20 years and not returned it may be better now!
I flew from Houston to Auckland last year with Air New Zealand on a 787 in coach. Great plane. Yeah it was a long flight but I kept myself busy with movies, reading, sleeping, eating and stretching my legs constantly.
Flew Auckland Doha with Qatar just prior to COVID in business. Got a great deal so took it. Had the best sleep ever on an aircraft. An amazing experience.
LAX to DOH direct (15h, 45m) on Qatar, seated in a Q-Suite. Delayed flight into DOH so on landing m, walked onto bus practically straight onto flight to JNB for another 8h 30m- 24h+ with a 5 min bus ride, and a 5 min walk to break it up.
While not a nonstop flight, the longest trip I ever made was from Sydney to Delhi to Joberg to Rio in 1977.
I was in Australia on a sales trip when working for Fokker aircraft and planned a stop in India for a meeting with government officials on my way back to Amsterdam. On arrival in Delhi I was ordered to go directly to Rio for a meeting 2 days later. Only way was via Johannesburg, all the way on Boeing 707 aircaft.