A Chinese airline is set to launch the world’s longest commercial flight later this year.
Starting Dec. 4, China Eastern Airlines will fly an over 12,000-mile route between Shanghai and Buenos Aires. The flight from Buenos Aires to Shanghai is expected to take about 29 hours, making it the longest flight a passenger can book under a single flight number.
Flights from Shanghai to Buenos Aires will take less time, about 25 and a half hours, due to favorable high-altitude winds.
The Shanghai-Buenos Aires connection makes a single stop in Auckland, New Zealand, with passengers expected to remain on board. Because of this, the service constitutes the world’s longest “direct” flight in the world, but not the longest nonstop flight. That title belongs to Singapore Airlines’ 19-hour service between Singapore and New York.
Currently, the longest “direct” flight is Air China’s Beijing-to-São Paulo route, which stops in Madrid.
China Eastern will operate the Shanghai-Buenos Aires service with a Boeing 777-300ER. Flights from Shanghai to Buenos Aires will operate on Mondays and Thursdays, while return flights are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays.
The route was first announced in June at a meeting in Shanghai involving representatives of China Eastern and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. At the time, officials said the service would begin in December, but no official start date or weekly schedule was made public.
