What are The World's Longest Scheduled Flights?

What are the world's longest scheduled air routes by distance and block time? As Emirates Airline reveals plans to launch a Dubai - Panama City route in February 2016, Routesonline investigates.

For a long time, Singapore Airlines has held the position of operating the world's longest scheduled flight, however, the closure of its flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York after its retirement of its Airbus A340-500 fleet earlier this decade, has meant the Pacific connection of Qantas Airways between Sydney and Dallas, now operated by the A380 SuperJumbo, took over as the longest commercial passenger route.

Find out more about the world's new longest distance scheduled air route from Emirates Airline between Dubai and Panama City here.

At 8,580 miles, the Dubai - Panama City route is mere eleven miles longer than Qantas' existing Sydney – Dallas route (8,569 miles). The flying time for the new Emirates service will be 17hrs 35mins for EK251 to Central America and 15hrs 45mins for EK251 back to Dubai. This will be 20-25 minutes longer than existing Delta Air Lines westbound service from Dubai to Atlanta and 40 minutes longer then Delta’s Northbound service from Johannesburg to Atlanta.

Using OAG Schedules Analyser data we highlight the current top 30 longest non-stop scheduled flights.

Rank Published Airline Origin Destination Distance (km)
1 Qantas Airways (QF) SYD DFW 13,802
2 Delta Air Lines (DL) ATL JNB 13,573
3 Etihad Airways (EY) AUH LAX 13,478
4 Emirates Airline (EK) DXB LAX 13,395
5 Saudia (SV) LAX JED 13,385
6 Emirates Airline (EK) DXB IAH 13,118
7 Etihad Airways (EY) AUH SFO 13,103
8 American Airlines (AA) DFW HKG 13,049
9 Emirates Airline (EK) DXB SFO 13,013
10= Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) HKG JFK 12,965
10= Etihad Airways (EY) AUH DFW 12,965
10= Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) HKG JFK 12,965
13= Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) HKG EWR 12,955
13= United Airlines (UA) EWR HKG 12,955
15 Qatar Airways (QR) DOH IAH 12,925
16 Emirates Airline (EK) DXB DFW 12,913
17 China Southern Airlines (CZ) CAN JFK 12,852
18 South African Airways (SA) JNB JFK 12,822
19 Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) HKG BOS 12,802
20 EVA Air (BR) TPE IAH 12,752
21= United Airlines (UA) LAX MEL 12,751
21= Qantas Airways (QF) MEL LAX 12,751
23 Qatar Airways (QR) DOH DFW 12,740
24= Air Canada (AC) YYZ HKG 12,545
24= Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) HKG YYZ 12,545
26= United Airlines (UA) EWR BOM 12,540
26= China Airlines (CI) TPE JFK 12,540
26= EVA Air (BR) TPE JFK 12,540
26= Air India (AI) BOM EWR 12,540
30= Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) HKG ORD 12,519
30= United Airlines (UA) ORD HKG 12,519
Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…