United Airlines has launched flights from its Los Angeles hub to Singapore – a 14,000km journey that takes 17 hours, 55 minutes on the outbound leg and 15 hours, 15 minutes on the way back. Singapore Airlines (SIA) stopped nonstop trans-pacific flights to Los Angeles in 2013 after deciding to retire its four-engine Airbus A340-500s. It halted nonstop trans-arctic flights from Singapore to New York at the same time, though both destinations are still served with stopovers. SIA has disclosed plans to resume serving New York and Los Angeles nonstop in 2018, when it takes delivery of its first A350-900ULR – an ultra-long-range variant of the next-generation aircraft. The previous record-holder for the longest flight from the US was Qantas, Australia’s flag-carrier, which flies 13,800km nonstop between Dallas and Sydney.

Source: Forbes October 29, 2017 18:11 UTC