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Singapore Airlines is discontinuing the two longest haul flights in the world. With a configuration of only 100 seats per plane, and prices over $8K there are too many people changing in Tokyo to save substantial amounts of money and/or take an @ss numbing coach seat to save substantially.
It looks like Qantas flights to Sydney and Brisbane and Delta flights from Atlanta to Johannesburg will remain the current champions for the forseeable future.
Miles US-Airport FOREIGN CARRIER
9,485 EWR SIN Singapore Airlines Ltd.
8,758 LAX SIN Singapore Airlines Ltd.
8,569 DFW SYD Qantas Airways Ltd.
8,299 DFW BNE Qantas Airways Ltd.
8,101 SFO DXB Emirates
8,070 JFK HKG Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
8,045 IAH DOH Qatar Airways (Q.C.S.C)
8,038 DFW DXB Emirates
7,967 JFK JNB South African Airways
7,919 LAX MEL Qantas Airways Ltd.
7,807 JFK TPE Eva Airways Corporation
7,806 EWR BOM National Aviation Company of India Limited d/b/a Air India
7,635 IAH LAD Atlas Air Inc. (LAD airport is in Angola)
7,573 LAX TLV El Al Israel Airlines Ltd.
....
8,433 ATL JNB Delta Air Lines Inc.
8,063 EWR HKG United Air Lines Inc.
7,599 ATL DXB Delta Air Lines Inc.
Do you expect to see some new contenders? Will anyone try a long haul single class seat plane again?
Long Haul flights are arbitrarily defined as longer than the busy competitive 7,487 mile flight from LAX to SYDNEY. That route has roughly 1750 seats flying each way per day, while all the other long haul routes combined have 6000 seats each way per day.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 10-09-2013 at 02:01 PM..
A friend of mine took that flight back when South African Airways was still flying the route (using 747s), but there was a refueling stop somewhere, thereby rendering it not a non-stop.
A friend of mine took that flight back when South African Airways was still flying the route (using 747s), but there was a refueling stop somewhere, thereby rendering it not a non-stop.
Yes, it is a Boeing 777. The ATL-JHB in coach is $1,375.30 while business class seems to be above $12K.
The Singapore flights were on an Airbus A340-500. When the flights began the planes were configured for 181 passengers, but SA reduced the passenger load to 100 with a single class. SA must keep 5 of these planes operational as they are flying to both LAX and EWR (one spare). It is possible that the expense of keeping only 5 airplanes of a single class added to the overall cost of the route. There is no published decision as to what they intend to do with the aircraft.
Now 100 psgrs/plane *2 destinations *365 days/year*$8000 = $584 million potential revenue. But if they were only filling half those seats, it must have been a break even prospect to keep 5 jets operational and crewed. All five A340-500 would be sold back to Airbus.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 10-09-2013 at 03:02 PM..
Yes, it is a Boeing 777. The ATL-JHB in coach is $1,375.30 while business class seems to be above $12K.
The Singapore flights were on an Airbus A340-500. When the flights began the planes were configured for 181 passengers, but SA reduced the passenger load to 100 with a single class. SA must keep 5 of these planes operational as they are flying to both LAX and EWR (one spare). It is possible that the expense of keeping only 5 airplanes of a single class added to the overall cost of the route. There is no published decision as to what they intend to do with the aircraft.
Now 100 psgrs/plane *2 destinations *365 days/year*$8000 = $584 million potential revenue. But if they were only filling half those seats, it must have been a break even prospect to keep 5 jets operational and crewed. All five A340-500 would be sold back to Airbus.
Don't forget the largest reason: operating the quad engined jet is expensive. Even worse when you are carrying fuel to carry more fuel, which is what makes most of the ULH flights so expensive.
I don't think we'll see many longer flights than those that already exist. People, generally, don't want to sit in coach for 18+ hours and most major world cities are already connected, so there is no reason to go much further. Also, freight is a huge money maker on certain routes, often generating more revenue than passengers. Longer flights require more fuel, reducing freight capacity. All sorts of strange things go under your feet that make an airline tons of money.
If I recall, the 77L, which DL flies on the ATL-JNB, LAX-SYD, and other routes, flew east from Hong Kong to London with ease (22+ hours). It is possible, but there is no reason to extend the flights more than they have to.
I fly regularly from DFW to SIN. Many times I have wound up on that EWR to HKG as one leg of that. Its long enough for me although I oddly prefer it over the more typical IAH, LAX, ORD to NRT leg. It seems that once your in the air for 12 hrs whats another 3. Plus HKG is probably the second best airport to kill time in, SIN would be #1.
I take long haul flights (round trip) 2-3 times a month and they are all multiple class. The only extra stops I've hit are the hubs in the US to get to different int'l hubs. Through the past few years my costs have gone down and I fly business class. So what I count into my 22 hour flight is all the time wasted in the US (I fly from the east coast).
I fly regularly from DFW to SIN. Many times I have wound up on that EWR to HKG as one leg of that. Its long enough for me although I oddly prefer it over the more typical IAH, LAX, ORD to NRT leg. It seems that once your in the air for 12 hrs whats another 3. Plus HKG is probably the second best airport to kill time in, SIN would be #1.
It would seem like the most natural route would be DFW to Tokyo and on to Singapore (6,436 mi & 3,312 mi).
Do you just like to fly United?
6436+ 3312=9748 which is only 58 miles longer than the great circle route of 9690 miles
Last edited by PacoMartin; 10-10-2013 at 05:44 AM..
Yes, it was a stunt they did 8 years ago: 13,423 miles, travel time 22:22, but the plane carried 360,732 pounds of fuel and just 35 passengers.
So I guess you could fly from London to Sydney nonstop (10,588 miles) but it would simply cost you about $30K per passenger.
I've flown the LAX to LHR and LAX to NRT which are both just under 5500 miles. That was long enough.
Not many business class travellers actually pay full price for a ticket. Some may be airline employees, have corporate contracts for the seats, be upgrade eligible. The other week, though, I was witness to someone laying down $10k last minute for a business class seat to Seoul! I guess he really wanted to get out of town.
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