Northstar

www.travelweekly-asia.com | 21 AVIATION Ownership of the World's Longest Flight is a much sought-after prize among the world's airlines. It lends certain legitimacy to one's standing in the worldwide airline community; it is a badge of honour. It is also a rather unique way to lose money. That is why Singapore gave up the crown when, after a decade of service, it ended its Newark-Singapore non-stop run in 2013. Fuel costs, as well as the need to fly with several crews, were just way ahead of an airline's ability to generate yields sufficient to support the project. But now there is a new aircraft, the Airbus 350-900ULR. Its first test flight was made on April 23, and things have gone well enough to position this plane to fly the king of all routes from October 12. The new Airbus will be able to fly up to 11,160 miles (17,960 km) without refuelling, an improvement of about 1,800 miles (2,896 km) over the previous A-350 model. Singapore has ordered seven of the planes. Singapore wants its title back from Qatar Airways, which operates the world's longest non-stop flight, between Auckland, New Zealand, and Doha, using long-distance Boeing 777 equipment. Qantas, the airline that pioneered long-distance air travel, is still very much in the running. It flies its longest route, Perth, Australia, to London, in just over 17 hours. Singapore Airlines will be listing the flight time from home to Newark at just about 19 hours. The economics of operating flights of this length are challenging. A 19-hour flight requires around 6,240 more gallons (23,620 litres) of fuel than what the current model 350s can carry. Then there is the matter of crew. Pilots may fly no more than eight hours without rest/sleep. The world's longest flights generally carry two complete flight crews with three pilots and two or three first officers. Operators of long-distance flights face questions related to delicate payload/range calculations. The plane can be ordered with an increase in sustainable take-off weight, or the airline can, instead, find more value in reducing passenger and cargo loads. Singapore has said it will gear the flight to business travellers and reconfigure the plane with just 161 seats divided between business and premium economy cabins. That will make for a higher average ticket price and, perhaps, help make the economics work. But there have been problems with long-haul flights. Besides configurations that did not produce maximum yield, the planes burnt fuel to a degree that always made profitability on longer routes only theoretically possible. And there has always been the threat of fuel cost increases. There are some studies that show a fair number of folks prefer to fly for about 14 hours before getting off to rest and then connect or fly on the next day. Airlines in the Middle East are positioned perfectly for many long-distance travellers, and Qatar, Etihad and Emirates have the financial backing and the desire to become known as the long-flight carrier of choice. That is one reason we are seeing showers and private bedrooms make their way into first class. The long-distance planes coming off the assembly line have higher ceilings, lower noise levels and design features that aim to create the atmosphere of a long room rather than a long tube. Even the air is getting better. Perhaps the biggest change that long-distance flyers don't consciously notice is a maximum in-cabin altitude of 6,000 feet (1,828 metres). This is a 25% reduction in the comparable altitude of the vast majority of planes flying long-distance routes today. Humidity in the cabin is already improving. Major routes have been operated with aircraft that have about a 20% humidity level. But even that number is improving on the new-generation aircraft. This dramatically changes the percentage of passengers who are able to sleep in their more comfortable seats or their true lie-flat beds. As we know from years of tyre kicking and testing, Singapore Airlines will make their world's longest flight experience surprisingly comfortable. But it is both a human and a technological challenge of major proportions. Airbus A350-900 computer rendering by Fixion-MMS. Singapore Airlines is coming back to New York to fly the longest flight in the world, Newark to Singapore. It will, once again, become the reigning champion in the ultimate long-distance race — only in this case, speed matters far less than distance. By Richard Turen The new Airbus will be able to fly up to 11,160 miles without refuelling, an improvement of about 1,800 miles over the previous A-350 model. SINGAPORE AIRLINES RETURNS TO NEW YORK WITH A PLANE FIT FOR THE JOB World's longest flight title is up in the air

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