Singapore Airlines Flight 21 is the longest regularly scheduled non-stop flight in the world. It flies from Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) to Singapore Changi Airport (WSSS/SIN), covering 9,534 miles (15,343 km) miles in about 18.5 hours flight time. It is operated by an Airbus A340-500.
Singapore Airlines Flight 21 is the longest regularly scheduled non-stop flight in the world. It flies from Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) to Singapore Changi Airport (WSSS/SIN), covering 9,534 miles (15,343 km) miles in about 18.5 hours flight time. It is operated by an Airbus A340-500. Flight 21 is scheduled to take off from Newark at 23:00 EDT (11:00 SGT) and land in Singapore at 4:05 SGT (16:05 SGT). Its return flight is Singapore Airlines Flight 22 from Singapore to Newark, which is the second-longest flight in the world, being scheduled to be fifteen minutes shorter due to prevailing high-altitude winds.
The shortest path between Newark and Singapore is a north/south route over Baffin Island, the North Pole, Siberia and China. However, the actual flight paths deviate from the ideal route via the North Pole for a number of reasons, such as favorable jet stream tail winds, safety issues (few alternative airports along the North Pole route), and the daily-changing North Atlantic Tracks. Hence, the Newark-to-Singapore flights travel over the UK and follow the same route to Singapore as other flights originating from Europe, while the Singapore-to-Newark flights travel via Japan, Alaska and Canada. On both legs the actual route therefore has an initial north-east heading, rather than straight north. The flight paths can be seen in the attached images. The shortest distance between Newark and Singapore via the North Pole is 15,345 kilometers (9,535 mi). Newark to Singapore (via the London route) is 16,464 kilometers (10,230 mi) and Singapore to Newark (via the Tokyo route) is 16,184 kilometers (10,056 mi).
Singapore Airlines originally offered an Executive Economy Class on this flight. Seats in this class of travel were more spacious than ordinary Economy Class seats. However, SIA phased out this class of service in favor of 100-seat all-Business Class flights on the non-stop flights between Singapore and Newark or Los Angeles in 2008.
In October 2012, Singapore Airlines announced that it will be returning all of its leased A340-500 aircraft to Airbus and discontinuing its non-stop service to Newark and Los Angeles in 2013. Once SQ21 and its related flights are discontinued, Qantas non-stop flight from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth will be the world's longest non-stop flight.
