5 Shortest and Longest Airplane Flights
For anyone who’s taken a transcontinental flight, you know the agony that can go along with hours upon hours of stifling claustrophobia, stiffening limbs, and insomnia. But what’s worse, a 19-hour flight from the other side of the world or all the hassle that goes into just a five-minute plan ride?
The Five Longest
1. Newark to Singapore
Distance: 9,535 miles
Flight Duration: 18 hours 50 minutes
Singapore Airlines holds the record for the longest commercial non-stop flight to its capital city Singapore from Newark, NJ. What’s the only way to make it through a nearly 19-hour flight? Get a First Class seat with a 35-inch wide leather and mahogany seat, which folds out into a flat bed, and a 23-inch LCD screen.
2. Los Angeles to Singapore
Distance: 8,770 miles
Flight Duration: 18 hours 5 minutes
Moving across to the west coast, Singapore Airlines also operates the second-longest flight. With a route that takes passengers across the Pacific, it’s possible to leave the west coast of the United States and arrive Far East in about an hour’s less time. This flight is often booked as a layover en route to Australia.
3. Johannesburg to Atlanta
Distance: 8,439 miles
Flight Duration: 16 hours 40 minutes
Delta Airlines makes a lot of trips in and out of its hub, Atlanta, Ga., but its longest flight sees its passengers off to Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s your only option to fly out of Atlanta to the South African capital and the shortest route from the states.
4. Dubai to Los Angeles
Distance: 8,339 miles
Flight Duration: 16 hours 35 minutes
Talk about east meets west. If LA is the epitome of U.S. decadence, luxury, and excess it has finally met its match in Dubai. Can’t get enough of one? Why not take the most direct route from one twin city to the other? It only takes three-quarters of a day.
5. Los Angeles to Bangkok
Distance: 8,270 miles
Flight Duration: 17 hours 30 minutes
While the route on Thai Airlines International from the country’s capital to the major California city is the fifth longest in terms of distance, the flight actually takes longer than the previous two items on our list. But what’s another hour of flight time when you’ll be dealing with a 14-hour time difference once you get off the plane?
The Five Shortest
1. Westray to Papa Westray
Distance: 1.7 miles
Flight Duration: 2 minutes
With a population of less than 600 and even less square footage, Westray is gaining in popularity as a tourism spot of the Scottish Isles due to its prosperous fishing and farming industries, while its neighbor isle, Papa Westray, caters to fans of archaeology and wildlife alike.
2. Ipota to Dillons Bay
Distance: 4.1 miles
Flight Duration: 10 minutes
As one of the major airlines to fly throughout the South Pacific, Air Vanuatu makes the trip amongst the Vanuatu archipelago island series northwest of Australia. Tafea, home to Ipota and Dillons Bay is the southern most of the islands’ six provinces.
3. Warraber Island to Yam Island
Distance: 6.1 miles
Flight Duration: 15 minutes
The draw of the coral reef waters and native foods send travelers to this area of Queensland, Australia one of three of the Sue Islet. But to venture outside this trio you can hop on a Regional Pacific Airlines flight to Yam Island, part of the Bourke island just 100 km northeast of the Thursday Island of Queensland. Measuring just two square miles and with just under 400 residents, Yam Island is still accessible by its own on-island airport.
4. St. Kitts to Nevis
Distance: 9 miles
Flight Duration: 5 minutes
The island conglomeration of the Caribbean consists of more than 7,000 islands, islets, and reefs. The islands of St. Kitts and Nevis lie west of Antigua and southeast of Puerto Rico, but even though their only nine miles apart the only travel option is by boat or by plane. A five-minute plane ride isn’t even enough time to make it through the safety rundown, which we’re kind of OK with.
5. Saipan to Tinian
Distance: 10.8 miles
Flight Duration: 10 minutes
Separated by the Saipan Channel, Saipan and Tinian make up the three main islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Freedom Air (Guam) pilots may or may not have a difficult time landing on the island of only 39 square miles, which is most commonly known as the launch site for the United States’ dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan during World War II.
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I’d love to take that Westray to Papa Westray flight – it sounds like an interesting place to go. And worth it, IMHO, to avoid being on a boat.
Hmmm, Bangkok, Singapore and Dubai are all in my top 10 must-visit places, and I live in L.A. Looks like I’m in for some LONG flights soon.
What an interesting article! I would MUCH rather be on the shorter flights that the 16+ hours! (Although I bet there are great amenities for such a long flight…)
Awesome website.
Very interesting. Now I am curious as to what the shortest flight in the U.S. is. Hmmm….
Wow, that is a long trip from Los Angeles to Singapore!
This post is really interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight for more than four hours. Do they have two pilots flying the plane? They gotta sleep sometime!
great post!
A 2 minute plane ride…crazy!
I couldn’t imagine flying 18 hours! WOAH! lol
haha @ the 2 minute flight! Great list!!
I didn’t know that you could fly for a grand total of 1.7 miles! That’s crazy!!
seriously flying 1.7 miles takes 2 minutes is it REALLY worth it?
I cannot imagine the flight from Los Angeles to Singapore. Especially with kids! =)
I can’t imagine being on a plane for all of a few minutes!! Seems crazy.
A 2-minute flight!? Crazy…
One word EXELLENT WEB
When I worked at the Club Mediterranee on Moorea, there were two ways to go to Tahiti. Or vice versa.
The old inter-island ferry took something more than 2 hours, a rough voyage that saw us always sea-sick — or — relative to the post, a flight of 7 minutes between take-off on Moorea and landing at Faa`a Airport in Tahiti.
I further recall the boys at ‘Le Club’ making bets to see who could `have` the hostess between take-off and touch-down….
Great article!
I live in Sydney so for me I do the long haul flights then generally have to take another flight, like Sydney to Paris via Abu Dhabi.
I used to almost commute between here and LA, and always on cattle-class
But those 10 minute flights? I’d be taking those all the time if I could
Bon voyage!
Teena
That is crazy! What is the point of flying 1.7 miles?! haha
I would love to take the 2 min flight from Westray to Papa Westray. Sounds beautiful!
I have been on Emirates Dubai-LA and back.Wow wow the going from Dubai to LA was never ending:(But on the way back it was like a 2 hour trip:)And in 20 days time it is back from Cape town to Los angels via Dubai:)Just love the time in the air(Cape town-Dubai 9hrs 30min and Dubai to LA 16hrs 30min,Nice
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is magnificent blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
18 hours in a plane is hard to bear. Because there is no stop to stretch your legs. I have travelled for 24 hours by road in a bus and that was somewhat bearable as I could see the scenery, relax but in plane for 18h. Impossible
We took our 7 months girl to visit family last Christmas. We live in Singapore and flew to LA. It was long, my butt were ouch ouch. Thankfully, our baby is a good traveler. Long flights are ok but jet lagged are hard especially when you have small kid.
just one thing to mention: ewr-sin and lax-sin take a340-500 planes with 4 engines instead of the one on your pic with 2 turbines
What about my flight on emirates…dubai to auckland. 18 hrs and 45 mins…and that is just the connecting flight!