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Longest and Shortest Flights

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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 03:48 PM
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Longest and Shortest Flights

I'm at the President's Club at LAX and it is raining but I've been watching the planes take off and land and saw the Emirates plane. According to Kayak, the flight takes 16:30hours from Dubai to LAX. Singapore Air has an A340-500 that takes 18:45 hours from Newark to Singapore. I hope Airbus doesn't try to sell them an A380 for these routes.

Who has the shortest flight you have ever been on? It has to be a plane. By the way, the house wine is free here.
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 03:52 PM
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I didn't see the Qantas Airbus A380's here. Are they still here?
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 04:38 PM
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Longest distance: EWR-HKG Great circle distance is 8,062mi.

Longest flight time: HKG->EWR 15:26 eastbound.

Shortest distance: DCA-IAD 23mi.

Shortest flight time: For the flights I have actually timed, it was HNL-LIH. 22 minutes either way for 101mi. I did not time the DCA-IAD flight, nor from TSA (Taipei Songsang) and HUN (Hualien), 73mi.
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 04:56 PM
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shortest I've been on is considered the shortest scheduled flight in the world:

Logan Air from Kirkwall to Papa Westray

http://www.iknow-scotland.co.uk/tour...ray_orkney.htm

Took the ferry back across to Kirkwall . . .
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 05:48 PM
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Well, I can't beat janisj, but I've flown Powell River-Vancouver (or vice versa) - 74 miles - a number of times, often in a MacMillan Bloedel "Goose".
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 08:38 PM
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Denver to Vail was about 25 minutes. Scraiest 25 minutes of my life as we kept hitting the air equivalent of potholes.

Longest nonstop flight? Maybe Newark to Singapore.

Longest day of flying? Honolulu to New Delhi. Almost 10 hours to EWR, 7 hour layover, then 15 hours to New Delhi.

Neither of those compare to a flight I took from LA to London in the 70s. It was a charter flight with no entertainment other than a stop in Bangor Maine to refuel. I have never had such an awful time...couldn't sleep, the food was horrible and my body ached from the spartan seats. Probably wasn't even a jet. I must have checked my watch every fifteen minutes for the whole 17 hours!
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 08:59 PM
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<i>I didn't see the Qantas Airbus A380's here. Are they still here?</i>

Still grounded - big QC problems with the engines - existing, replacement, repaired. The only A380s QF has put back into service are on the LON kangaroo routes.

I rode many many times on a 19-mile scheduled service, CDB-KVC (Cold Bay to King Cove AK) mainly on a Goose.
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 09:00 PM
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Shortest - CVG to LEX
Wheels up to wheels down - 16 minutes
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Old Dec 18th, 2010 | 10:46 PM
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I can't beat janisj either.

I've frequently flown DEN-COS on UA, 60 miles, 17 minutes of actual flight time give or take. The plane reaches cruising altitude, then begins to descend two minutes later, or so it seems. It's usually a roller coaster ride, and I've been known to arrange all of my flights from PER-COS specifically to avoid the DEN-COS leg.

My shortest international flights have been Bahrain to Dammam (35 minutes) and Pekanbaru to Singapore (Garuda, about 40 minutes).

My longest non-stop flight - SIN-LAX on SIA. Back in the day when the whole plane was Executive Economy. Oh, how I miss that flight.
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Old Dec 19th, 2010 | 03:56 AM
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"considered the shortest scheduled flight in the world:"

That's Westray to Papa Westray: Kirkwall to Papa Westray, by comparison, is a serious shlep

When the flight existed, the Guinness Book of Records used to claim that Liverpool to Hawarden (in the 1960s, a kind of suburban halt on scheduled Liverpool-London flights, but now used only to fly Airbus wings between factories) was a still shorter flight, if the winds were in the right direction, than Westray to Papa Westray.
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Old Dec 19th, 2010 | 05:03 AM
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Bahamasair.com

Treasure Key to Marsh Harbor

12 miles 5 minutes shortest for me

EWA Singapore 19 hours or so longest

what a drudge...
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Old Dec 19th, 2010 | 11:21 AM
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I flew once from San Jose to Oakland. I'm not sure the mileage, but I know it takes about 35 minutes to drive. The flight took about five minutes once we were airborne; never even got to a cruising altitude. I doubt that they even make that stop anymore - we were on our way to Florida, and the plane stopped to pick up additional passengers. It was about 27 years ago.
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Old Dec 19th, 2010 | 05:45 PM
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At LAX Saturday night, the LAX to Singapore flight said Business Class on the monitors. Is the entire plane Business?

That is the only way I could fly a long flight. Business Class.
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Old Dec 19th, 2010 | 05:54 PM
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SQ flies all-business class A345 non-stops between SIN and LAX, and between SIN and EWR.

Melnq8 was a bit incorrect. When SQ first launched these routes, they had business class and premium economy (they called it Executive Economy). Later, they reconfigured those planes to business class only with the same seats as on their 77W and 380. They never operated them with Executive Economy only.
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Old Dec 19th, 2010 | 08:07 PM
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I stand corrected.

I flew SIN-LAX-SIN in SIA Executive Economy several times - it was great - the perfect compromise between coach and business without breaking the bank, all with that world class SIA service and enough room to actually move. It was a loooong, flight (15-16 hours), but I was glad to get it over with in one fell swoop.

It's all Business Class now, and they charge a premium on that route over and beyond the cost of a RTW Business Class ticket - $900 when I last checked a couple of years ago.
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Old Dec 20th, 2010 | 04:18 AM
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In Masaii Mara, the 5 or so mile flight from Mara Serena airstrip to Intrepids' strip.
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Old Dec 20th, 2010 | 08:42 PM
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I've taken that CVG to LEX flight. Years ago. My favorite part was that they still managed to serve drinks!
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Old Dec 22nd, 2010 | 06:49 AM
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My longest flight was from Seattle to Hong Kong, I think that lasted about 14 hours.

My shortest flight was on British Airways, from Houston to Houston lasting 13 minutes. It seemed a lot longer but according to the NTSB report that flight lasted only 13 minutes. We took off but had to return to Houston because an engine was on fire and the plane was filling with smoke. Not a good flight but I did get some good upgrades on subsequent BA flights.

This is one of the many reasons rkkwan and just about everyone I know will not fly with me. :-s
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Old Dec 22nd, 2010 | 06:52 AM
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My second shortest flight was from San Antonio to Austin, that was 17 minutes. That flight was supposed to go to Austin but we ran short of fuel and had to make an emergency landing in SA. Once they refueled we flew ~60 miles to Austin.

I really don't blame you rkkwan.
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Old Dec 23rd, 2010 | 05:23 AM
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Longest flight I've been on is LHR-SIN. Not one of the biggies, but long enough. Flown to SIN from CDG and AMS, too. Haven't done too many ultra-short flights, so it would probably be PVD-EWR.
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