Here’s how much you’ll pay for the “world’s longest” flight
A new service between Shanghai and Buenos Aires, advertised as “the world’s longest flight route”, is set to start later this year.
China Eastern Airlines is now selling tickets for what it has billed as “the world’s longest flight route”.
Earlier this month, China Eastern announced the launch of the 12,500-mile direct service, which will carry passengers between the Chinese city Shanghai and the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires.
“Linking antipodal cities across the globe”
Seemingly set to run twice weekly, the flights are due to begin on Thursday, December 4, the Chinese carrier said in a statement on September 15.
“Soar 20,000 km in 25 hours, linking the antipodal cities across the globe,” China Eastern declared.
According to the airline’s official flight listings, the journeys will actually take slightly longer than that. Flight MU745 between Shanghai and Buenos Aires clocks in at five minutes short of 26 hours, while flight MU746 from Buenos Aires to Shanghai is timed at 29 hours.
How much will the Chinese Eastern flights cost?
As of September 21, a one-way economy-class ticket for MU745’s opening flight to Buenos Aires was priced at just over $1,700. Business-class tickets were selling for close to $6,500.
On what appears to be MU746’s first flight to Shanghai, scheduled for December 5, a one-way economy seat cost about $1,550 as of September 21, while business-class travelers were being charged just over $6,000.
It’s direct - but...
While China Eastern’s new service is direct, it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean flights MU745 and MU746 don’t include a stop along the way.
In each direction between Shanghai and Buenos Aires, China Eastern’s route will feature a layover in Auckland, New Zealand, lasting between two hours and two and a half hours.
Direct vs non-stop: a crucial distinction
As explained by the travel blog Budget Air, the term ‘direct’ only means “you do not change planes and you have only one flight number”. A flight that doesn’t include a layover between origin and destination is known as ‘non-stop’.
Per the flight-tracking website Flight Radar 24, the longest non-stop flight in the world is Singapore Airlines’ SQ23/SQ24 service between Singapore and New York’s JFK Airport.
Covering a distance of just over 15,300 km (9,500 miles), the journey has an average duration of between 18 hours 10 minutes and 18 hours 27 minutes, Flight Radar says.
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