Cathay Pacific is planning a course for what would be the world's longest passenger flight by rerouting its New York to Hong Kong service over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, avoiding Russian airspace, Bloomberg reported, citing an internal company memo.
The new flight path would cover 10,357 miles (16,668 kilometres), in 16 to 17 hours, Cathay said in a statement to AFP.
According to the airline's calculations, the new flight path will cover more than Singapore Airlines' New York JFK-Singapore service, which is currently the world's longest by distance (9,534 miles).
A spokesperson for Cathay Pacific said: "The transatlantic option for New York JFK to Hong Kong is just under 9,000 nautical miles (10,357 miles). Our Airbus A350-1000 aircraft can comfortably accomplish this in 16 to 17 hours with similar fuel consumption to the transpacific flights."
"We are always running contingency routings for potential events or scenarios within the world of aviation. We compare flight routes daily, and will plan and fly what is the most efficient routing on the day. The transatlantic option relies on the facilitation of strong seasonal tailwinds at this time of the year in order for the flight time to be between 16 and 17 hours, thereby making it more favourable than the transpacific route." the spokesperson added.
