Because of the Russian airspace closure, many airlines have to accept longer routes. Cathay Pacific involuntarily sets a new record.
Singapore Airlines has held the record since 2018 – with a small break due to the Corona crisis. The airline offers the longest flight in the world. An Airbus A350-900 ULR usually flies the 15,349-kilometer route between Singapore and New York in around 17.5 hours.
Now a competitor is dethroning Singapore Airlines. However, not voluntarily. Airspace closures as a result of the war in Ukraine are forcing Cathay Pacific to take a longer route to fly to New York. The final flight between New York and Hong Kong made a stopover in Los Angeles before continuing across the Pacific to the Asian financial hub, bypassing Russian airspace.
tailwind as a requirement
A new, extended route eliminates the need for stopovers. Cathay Pacific plans to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in an Airbus A350-1000 from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. After that, the flight will be routed via the UK, southern Europe and central Asia, according to a letter to employees quoted by Bloomberg news agency.
The distance of the new route is 16,618 kilometers. It would surpass Singapore Airlines’ New York connection by around eight percent. However, it will not always be possible to fly the route in this way. After all, the transatlantic option is only possible if there are strong tailwinds. “We always have alternative routes for possible events or scenarios,” a spokeswoman for Cathay Pacific told Bloomberg.
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Even Lufthansa does not always fly the same way. Depending on the wind conditions, she leads her Flights from Tokyo to Frankfurt different. Sometimes it goes via the northwest routesometimes via the north-east route.