Flight length

In aviation, the flight length is defined as the distance of a flight. Commercial flights are often categorized into long-, medium- or short-haul by commercial airlines based on flight length, although there is no international standard definition and many airlines use air time or geographic boundaries instead. Route category lengths tend to define short-haul routes as being shorter than 600–800 nmi (1,100–1,500 km), long-haul as being longer than 2,200–2,600 nmi (4,100–4,800 km), and medium-haul as being in-between.

Route category definitions
Lufthansa considers the Embraer E-190 as a short-haul airliner
Lufthansa considers the Airbus A320 family medium-haul aircraft
Lufthansa defines the Boeing 747-8 as a long-haul airliner

Asia & Australia
  • Japan Air Lines defines routes to Europe and North America as long-haul and all other flights as short-haul.[1]
  • Virgin Australia defines domestic flights as within Australia, short-haul as those to South East Asia/Pacific and long-haul as those to Abu Dhabi or Los Angeles.[2]
  • The Hong Kong Airport considers destinations in North and South Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southwest Pacific and the Indian Subcontinent long-haul and all others are short-haul.[3]

Europe
  • Eurocontrol defines medium-haul routes as being between 1,500 and 4,000 km (930 and 2,490 mi; 810 and 2,160 nmi), short-haul as shorter and long-haul routes as longer than that.[4]
  • The Association of European Airlines defines Long-haul as flights to Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australasia and medium-haul as flights to North Africa and Middle East.[5] The now defunct airline Air Berlin defined short- and medium-haul as flights to Europe/North Africa and long-haul as those to the rest of the world.[6]
  • Air France defines short-haul as domestic, medium-haul as within Europe/North Africa and long haul as the rest of the world.[7]

North America
  • American Airlines defines short-/medium-haul flights as being less than 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km) and long-haul as either being more than 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km) or being the New York–Los Angeles and New York–San Francisco routes.[8]
  • United Airlines defines short-haul flights as being less than 700 mi (610 nmi; 1,100 km)[9] and long-haul flights as being greater than 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km).[10]

Aircraft category definitions

While they are capable of flying further, long-haul widebodies are often used on shorter trips: 40% of A350 routes are shorter than 2,000 nmi (2,300 mi; 3,700 km), 50% of A380 flights fall within 2,000–4,000 nmi (2,300–4,600 mi; 3,700–7,400 km), 70% of 777-200ER routes are shorter than 4,000 nmi (4,600 mi; 7,400 km), 80% of 787-9s routes are shorter than 5,000 nmi (5,800 mi; 9,300 km), 70% of 777-200LRs flights are shorter than 6,000 nmi (6,900 mi; 11,000 km) and 777-300ERs flights are evenly distributed across its range.[14]

Superlative flights
See also: Flight distance record

Shortest commercial flight

The Westray to Papa Westray flight in Orkney, operated by Loganair, is the shortest commercial flight in the world over 2.8 km (1.7 mi) in two minutes scheduled flight time including taxiing.

Longest commercial flight
Main article: ultra long-haul
See also: longest flights

From 11 October 2018, the longest commercial flight is the Singapore Airlines Flight SQ 21/22 between Singapore Changi and New York/Newark, covering 15,344 km (9,534 mi; 8,285 nmi) with an Airbus A350-900ULR in nearly 19 hours, with 161 seats: 67 Business and 94 Premium Economy.[15]

Distinctions

Absolute distance versus flight length
Airline routes between San Francisco and Tokyo following the most direct great circle (top) westward, and following a longer-distance jet stream route (bottom) when heading eastward

The absolute distance between two points is the great-circle distance, which is always the shortest geographical route. In the example (right), the aircraft travelling westward from North America to Japan is following a great-circle route extending northward towards the Arctic region. The apparent curve of the route is a result of distortion when plotted onto a conventional map projection and makes the route appear to be longer than it really is. Stretching a string between North America and Japan on a globe will demonstrate why this really is the shortest route despite appearances.

The actual flight length is the length of the track flown across the ground in practice, which is usually longer than the ideal great-circle and is influenced by a number of factors such as the need to avoid bad weather, wind direction and speed, fuel economy, navigational restrictions and other requirements. In the example, easterly flights from Japan to North America are shown taking a longer, more southerly, route than the shorter great-circle; this is to take advantage of the favourable jet stream, a fast, high-altitude tail-wind, that assists the aircraft along its ground track saving more time and fuel than the geographically shortest route.

Air time versus schedule times

Air time is the elapsed time that the aircraft is airborne, regardless of what time-zone the flight began and ended in.

Schedule time is the difference between the scheduled local time at the origin and the scheduled local time at the destination and usually differs from the actual time in the air as it is affected by the local time zones. Local clock time flying westward, or "chasing the sun", is slowed,[16] while local clock time flying eastbound is sped up. However, flights over the International Date Line located at approximately 180o E in the Pacific will subtract 24 hours from the schedule time going eastwards and add 24 hours going westwards. For example, the eastward flight shown in the example from Japan to North America will have a scheduled time of arrival earlier than the departure time, while from North America to Japan the flight will take a whole day longer by local time; the actual flying time in both cases being the same or similar.

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See also

References
  1. "JAL Applies for Revision of International Cargo Fuel Surcharge" (PDF) (Press release). Japan Air Lines. June 28, 2007.
  2. "Flight Definition". Virgin Australia.
  3. "Airport Construction Fee Effective on 1 August 2016" (Press release). Airport Authority Hong Kong. 30 May 2016.
  4. "Study into the impact of the global economic crisis on airframe utilisation" (PDF). Eurocontrol. January 2011. p. 21.
  5. "The future of long-haul air services from europe". Association of European Airlines. 2004. p. 1.
  6. "What are short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul flights?". Air Berlin.
  7. "Issuance fees". Air France.
  8. "Your travel just got more rewarding". American Airlines.
  9. "Sweet spots for redeeming United MileagePlus miles". USA Today. April 22, 2016.
  10. "United Airlines Offers Bonus-Miles Promotion for Premium-Cabin Travelers" (Press release). United Airlines. January 9, 2015.
  11. "Delta to Upgrade In-Flight Wi-Fi and Expand Coverage Areas for Customers" (Press release). Delta Air Lines. 5 March 2015.
  12. "Fleet". Lufthansa. Archived from the original on 2017-02-21. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
  13. "Our Fleet". Thomson Airways.
  14. "Asia-Pacific ultra-long-range flights". Flightglobal. 28 March 2018.
  15. Chris Leadbeater (11 Oct 2018). "Nineteen hours, 9,534 miles and no economy class – the facts and figures behind the world's longest flight". The Telegraph.
  16. Dik A. Daso Doolittle: Aerospace Visionary 2003 - Page 116 "While flying west, a pilot actually lengthens her day by “chasing the sun.” Hence, there are effectively three hours more daylight than darkness on this east-to-west flight."
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