Emirates Airlines has snared the record for the world's longest Airbus A380 flight with the debut of its daily superjumbo service between Los Angeles and Dubai.
At a potentially bum-numbing 16 hours and 20 minutes it's also the world's second-longest flight for any commercial aircraft, coming in barely a half-hour behind US carrier Delta's 16h55m flight 201 from Atlanta to Johannesburg.
Emirates' marathon A380 route flies over Canada, the North Pole and Russia before finally reaching the Gulf carrier's home hub in Dubai – a moment which won't come too soon for those prone to wondering "Are we there yet?".
It could even be a bit too long for travellers ensconced in one of Emirates' first class A380 suites, although there's always a choice of two bars plus a visit to the shower suite to stop you from getting cabin fever.
However, if you count miles instead of minutes, Emirates still can't snatch the trophy from partner Qantas.
The Flying Kangaroo's QF7 service from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth remains king of the non-stops with a 13,800km trek.
And if you're curious about the world's shortest Airbus A380 flights, they start with China Southern's superjumbo jaunt of a little over two hours between Guangzhou and Shanghai.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
QFF
12 Apr 2013
Total posts 1559
Just a curiosity:
a) if the use the same pax number and cabin cofiguration as in "ordinary" flight or number reduced to save weight on fuel and
b) if they charge more.
Singapore stop flying their A340 service to LAX (and mind you, A340 is better machine for superstreched legs) because it was unprofitable and ticket via Frankfurt (if I recall correctly) cost less. But I guess anything profitable when it came to oil driven state supported airline.
Still interesting.
05 Sep 2011
Total posts 65
Even fully laiden, and even if bad weather meant a longer than usual routing, the A380 can fly this far.
Whilst air fares can vary hugely, broadly speaking non-stop flights from the Gulf to North America are more expensive than routing via Europe. How much of that is due to fuel and how much is European airlines undercutting their Gulf rivals to attract passemgers I don't know.
SQ fly SIN - LAX via NRT, it is their SIN - JFK flight that stops in FRA.
QFF
12 Apr 2013
Total posts 1559
Yes, according to specs A380 can do 15700k. For comparison A340 rated to 17000k while 777 is champion with rating 17370k. Curiously enough 747-8 rated to 15000k and 747 ER (aka extended range) even less. Then I like to ask a question – why Qantas use 747 to fly Dallas? Ok Qantas does not have 777, but on paper A380 looks like much better proposition! Yet they are saying that even LAX-SYD is a stretch for A380! And they planning to replace 747 by yet to be built 787-9 that can do “mere” 15700k. Some math never adds up when it came to aviation.
05 Sep 2011
Total posts 65
There is a very simple answer to your question - DFW cannot handle A380s.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1031
only 1 runway at LAX is long enough to handle an A380 departure of the flight load required to reach MEL.
QF's A380s are fully used on the SYD/MEL-LAX/LHR and SYD-HKG routes. When the final 8 A380s finally arrive, they'll likely start on JNB and SCL and the remaining LAX 747 routes.
21 Feb 2012
Total posts 40
Interesting,
I'm actually flying LAX-DXB-PER instead of LAX-SYD-PER, and it works out to about 5 hours longer, due to the short layover in DXB.
This as well as getting it for 192,000pts + ~US$450, for First Class, is epic. (Classic Award is abundantly available, as opposed to LAX-SYD/MEL/BNE
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1242
Sounds amazing. There are worse ways to be "trapped" on a plane than First in Emirates.
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