Air Tahiti Nui now holds the record for the world’s longest passenger flight by distance. The airline broke the record with a flight that resulted from coronavirus travel restrictions.
The flight from Papeete (PPT), Tahiti, French Polynesia, to Paris (CDG) covered 9,765 miles in less than 16 hours. The flight planned to stop in Los Angeles (LAX), but was canceled due to U.S. travel restrictions preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The next-gen Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, mostly empty of passengers, crossed the Pacific Ocean, the entire continental United States and the Atlantic Ocean without refueling. In doing so, it broke the previous record held by Singapore Airlines’ Singapore (SIN)–Newark (EWR) route, which covers 9,534 miles.
“This flight was operated on an exceptional basis and within the constraints imposed by the American authorities in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic,” said an Air Tahiti Nui spokesperson to CNN Travel.
The spokesperson added, while it was an “exceptional flight,” it’s “not destined to be perpetuated.”
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