Singapore Air Relaunches Longest Non-stop Flight

Singapore Airlines has regained the crown of operator of the world’s longest commercial flight with today’s Airbus A350 arrival into Newark.

Flight SQ22 landed at Newark’s Liberty Airport at 05:29 (5.29am) local time after a 17 hour 52 minute flight from Singapore Changi.

The service was operated by the airline's first Airbus A350-900ULR ultra long range aircraft. Singapore has a total of seven ULRs on order for its non-stop US routes.

The aircraft has a range of 9,700 nautical miles (18,000 km, 11,150 miles) and has a modified fuel system that increases the aircraft’s fuel capacity without additional fuel tanks.

The non-stop Singapore-Newark service will operate three times weekly until October 18, when it goes daily after the airline’s second ULR enters service. Direct Singapore to Los Angeles flights follow in November.

This is the second time that SIA has operated non-stop on the Singapore-Newark route. It used Airbus A340-500s on the service until 2013, when they were phased out due to their high operating costs.

Singapore’s A350-900ULRs are configured in a two-class layout, with 67 business and 94 premium economy seats.

Prior to today’s flight, Qatar Airways operated the longest flight, the 7,848 nautical mile (14,535 km, 9,032 miles) Doha-Auckland service.