Title: World's longest nonstop commercial flight lands in Sydney Source:
DW News (Ger)/Youtube URL Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcZrh5mTag Published:Oct 20, 2019 Author:DW News Post Date:2019-10-20 23:25:43 by nolu chan Keywords:None Views:577 Comments:4
World's longest nonstop commercial flight lands in Sydney
Oct 20, 2019 DW News
Australian airline Qantas has made aviation history, setting a new record for the longest non-stop commercial flight. The journey from New York to Sydney was part of a series of test flights to help the airline launch new ultra-long-haul routes. To give the plane sufficient fuel range, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off with a full tank, a restricted baggage load, and just 49 people on board.
This may have been one of the custom 787 jets produced for corporate or tycoon shuttling, the kind that are outfitted like a posh giant flying RV with staterooms.
To get the range needed from a plane not designed for it while carrying a full passenger load, they cut the passengers from over 240 to just 50 and restricted the cargo space. This gave them the range needed. They saved over 30 tons of just the weight of human flesh by doing this, probably another 10-12 tons of baggage weight and they probably carried no cargo at all.
This is not really a commercial flight. These are just some test flights and it isn't clear to me that these flights are open to the public, at least not yet.
Even if they find they can double the passenger size, this would still be very expensive to fly as a non-stop flight, just to save 4 hours in the air. The ticket prices would have to be more than double the regular price, just to cut 4-5 hours off a 25-hour flight.
You have to wonder if Qantas, a very successful airline, will be willing to subsidize these non-stop flights to NYC or London. Maybe, given that Qantas is Australia's global lifeline and a real signature brand, an ambassador brand, to the world. This is not dissimilar to how South Korea has used its own airline, Korean Air, as its own brand ambassador around the world. The Gulf emirates also use their airlines to promote their nations as does Israel.
