Quantas and Air New Zealand: direct AUS-US flights.

[RobPol471 173]

After that from next  June 23, 2022  Quantas will connect with three weekly direct flights to Australia and Europe with the connection from Perth to Rome Fiumicino whose flights will be carried out with 787-9 and will last 15 hours and 45 minutes, there is the announcement that Quantas will connect Melbourne to Dallas with a direct flight lasting 17 hours from next  December 2, 2022  while the connection between Perth and London not started due to Covid is planned, with a flight that will last 18 hours.

Air New Zealand last week announced that from next September 17, 2022 it will connect Auckland to New York with a direct flight lasting 17 hours and 35 minutes.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/qantas-dallas-melbourne-ultra-long-haul-flight/index.html

[JustanotherPilot 242]

Being that Australia is so far from the rest of the world, Qantas used to fly Catalina Flying Boats (seconded to the RAAF Reserve) from Perth to Ceylon, n WW2,,taking some 31 hours,then on to Britain Nicknamed the "Two sunrises" flights, these routes eventually became the forerunner of the "Kangaroo Route" from Australia to Britain after the war.

Edited March 29, 2022 by JustanotherPilot

[Antipodeslonghaul 80]

Pretty cool. I'm still waiting for LHR-SYD regular nonstops. I think SIN-JFK is still the current number one distance wise. Something like CAN-GRU, PVG-GRU (nonstop between megalapolises), or possibly AKL-LHR could some day perhaps become future contenders.

I think my longest flight was TPE-FRA in economy, 777-300ER China Airlines. The longest time wise only because the routing went up to Osaka and then Vladivostok (Taiwan/PRC politics), about 14 or 15 hours total flight time. But being in an exit row with full leg stretch, the seat next to me empty, the entire plane maybe half full, I could have easily gone 20 hours, no problem.

On the other hand a two hour flight, i.e. MUC-PMI, a jam packed 737, the kid behind you constantly kicking your seat, screaming babies, arguing passengers, people not only hogging the armrests but jabbing you with their elbows can be grueling. That for 20 hours, I couldn't imagine. 

[Paul Deluca 169]

Been there, and done that on the two hour flight you describe Anti. In one of my old posts, i talk about the man in front of me  squirming around in his seat while i have a breakfast tray watching it do a slow dance.{Boeing 727} A woman changing her baby's diaper up front by the cockpit door while i'm drinking  coffee.Poor lady had no choice since the lavatory is so cramped { De Havilland Dash-7}. Screaming babies, none in my case. Irate passengers, none.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Paul Deluca

[jeansy 344]

I'm still amazed after nearly 102 yrs of operation people still cant spell the airline's name noting its only an acronym 

 

(no dig pointed at the OP intended, however this isn't just a once off thing since Ive been lurking around flight sim forums since the late 90s, you could imagine the backlash if you spelt American or British Airlines the wrong way)

Edited March 29, 2022 by jeansy

[RobPol471 173]

4 hours ago, Antipodeslonghaul said:

Pretty cool. I'm still waiting for LHR-SYD regular nonstops. I think SIN-JFK is still the current number one distance wise. Something like CAN-GRU, PVG-GRU (nonstop between megalapolises), or possibly AKL-LHR could some day perhaps become future contenders.

I think my longest flight was TPE-FRA in economy, 777-300ER China Airlines. The longest time wise only because the routing went up to Osaka and then Vladivostok (Taiwan/PRC politics), about 14 or 15 hours total flight time. But being in an exit row with full leg stretch, the seat next to me empty, the entire plane maybe half full, I could have easily gone 20 hours, no problem.

On the other hand a two hour flight, i.e. MUC-PMI, a jam packed 737, the kid behind you constantly kicking your seat, screaming babies, arguing passengers, people not only hogging the armrests but jabbing you with their elbows can be grueling. That for 20 hours, I couldn't imagine. 

In this CNN article on Air New Zealand's presentation on direct flights between Auckland and New York City, we talk about the flight you mentioned between Singapore and JFK carried out by Singapore Airlines, whose distance of 9,534 miles traveled in about 18 hours, remains currently the flight with the greatest distance traveled but, as described in the article, the record of the longest direct  flight of 9,765 miles, is that of Air Tahiti Nui from Papeete, French Polynesia, to Paris Charles de Gaulle carried out in March 2020.

 This record is a consequence of Covid because the flight made a stopover in Los Angeles but Covid restrictions had forced the company to skip the Los Angeles airport.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/air-new-zealand-auckland-new-york-intl-hnk/index.html

[jason74 142]

its Qantas not Quantas

[iwebber 207]

3 hours ago, jeansy said:

 you could imagine the backlash if you spelt American or British Airlines the wrong way)

British Airways 😉

Let the backlash commence...

[jeansy 344]

1 hour ago, iwebber said:

British Airways 😉

Let the backlash commence...

it took a few hours but you picked it up 👍

 

[Antipodeslonghaul 80]

3 hours ago, RobPol471 said:

but, as described in the article, the record of the longest direct  flight of 9,765 miles, is that of Air Tahiti Nui from Papeete, French Polynesia, to Paris Charles de Gaulle carried out in March 2020.

 This record is a consequence of Covid because the flight made a stopover in Los Angeles but Covid restrictions had forced the company to skip the Los Angeles airport.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/air-new-zealand-auckland-new-york-intl-hnk/index.html

That's interesting, the Tahiti - Paris nonstop. I do now remember reading about that.

Quote

On March 28, 2021 a Comlux 787-8, registered P4-787, set a new record for the longest commercial non-stop flight with paying passengers. It flew a non scheduled (chartered) flight from the true antipodes of Seoul Incheon to Buenos Aires non-stop with its chartered passengers.^[94][95] The flight departed at 12:47 local time on March 28 and arrived on March 28 at 21:26 local time having covered a total of 19,483 kilometres (10,520 nmi; 12,106 mi) in a flight time of 20 hours, 19 minutes.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_flights

Maybe as early as the late 1950's a DC-8 or 707 could have potentially been modified to carry mostly fuel and perhaps only 30 first class passengers, no additional cargo, and the London - Sydney nonstop might have already been a reality at the advent of the passenger jet age.

When I do 777-200LR ultra long hauls in the sim, on a London - Sydney type flight I might have a payload of 20,000 kg (140 or so passengers plus some freight), and like 160,000 kg of ramp fuel.

For example with the 747SP, 747-400, or A340-500, plus some combination of aux tanks and low pax and freight capacity, these super ultra long hauls were already possible long ago (although possible is not necessarily profitable).

UK and Australia have a pretty big connection, people frequently going back and forth. Sydney - London (westbound/generally more headwinds) should be around 20 hours 40 minutes gate to gate when going nonstop. 22 hours 40 minutes, only 2 hours longer, with a 50 minute layover in Singapore is currently the fastest connection I see available. More typical connections are around 24 hours, with 2 hours or so in Dubai for example. So is it worth saving about 3 1/2 hours on the Kangaroo Route if it's a nonstop? Maybe it's partly prestige, but it also seems to make at least some economical sense. I'd definitely want to try it out.

*** I get carried away on these topics. I guess the longest endurance from a passenger and crew perspective would perhaps have been some hijacking, perhaps in the 1970's or 1980's. Just did a quick search, looks like an Indian Airlines A300 was held by terrorists and underway to various destinations for about 8 days in 1999, may have been the longest. Certainly no one wants to go through that. But on a lighter note perhaps living aboard a cargo 747, maybe for a couple of weeks, circling the globe a few times, only getting out to do walkarounds on the ramp would be fun.

[RobPol471 173]

5 hours ago, jason74 said:

its Qantas not Quantas

I apologize for the mistake but like the link that I publish, of an article in Italian that talks about the connection Australia - Italy of ... Q "u" antas, I am not the ... only one to make mistakes because here in Italy with the our language, the letter Q is pronounced QU and the Q is written "always" followed from the U and then only from the letters A - E - I - O.

In Italy Qantas is always pronounced Quantas and the error, finding me again, unfortunately depended on the habit that means that when you should write Qantas, it is automatic to add a U after the Q.

 

https://www.terzobinario.it/quantas-collega-italia-e-australia-decollando-da-fiumicino/

[jeansy 344]

16 minutes ago, RobPol471 said:

I apologize for the mistake but like the link that I publish, of an article in Italian that talks about the connection Australia - Italy of ... Q "u" antas, I am not the ... only one to make mistakes because here in Italy with the our language, the letter Q is pronounced QU and the Q is written "always" followed from the U and then only from the letters A - E - I - O.

In Italy Qantas is always pronounced Quantas and the error, finding me again, unfortunately depended on the habit that means that when you should write Qantas, it is automatic to add a U after the Q.

 

https://www.terzobinario.it/quantas-collega-italia-e-australia-decollando-da-fiumicino/

you are correct however the airline's name is an acronym for  Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services hence QANTAS

As for acronyms and this very case there is no need to use letter U rule for following the letter Q as its not a standard word

[RobPol471 173]

56 minutes ago, jeansy said:

hai ragione, tuttavia il nome della compagnia aerea è l'acronimo di  Q ueensland e N orthern T erritory A erial S ervices da cui QANTAS

Per quanto riguarda gli acronimi e proprio in questo caso non è necessario utilizzare la regola della lettera U per seguire la lettera Q in quanto non è una parola standard

Thanks for the information, I did not know that Qantas was an acronym here anyway, at a distance of about ... 16000 Km from Sydney, just to ... complicate the pronunciation, the acronym of Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services translated into Italian becomes  " Queensland Servizi  Aerei  Territorio  Nord " with the acronym QSATN ... unpronounceable in Italian so much better Qantas even if ... we add a U after the Q when we pronounce it.😃

[Paul Deluca 169]

Good Italian Jeansy Much better than mine.CIAO!!!

[Antipodeslonghaul 80]

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/cathay-plans-worlds-longest-passenger-145934035.html

I just happened to see this. Involving politics though and not purely the great circle distance between two points. Not so sure about the article though. 9,000 nautical miles in 16 hours?

Ok, then actually the Westray to Papa Westray flight is also the longest flight in the world since the two airfields are about 10,799 nautical miles apart (if you fly in the wrong direction).