An airline from Kazakhstan is launching a 14+ hour Boeing 737 flight between the Czech Republic and China with a refueling stop in Kyrgyzstan… as one does.
SCAT Airlines’ new Prague to Sanya via Bishkek flight
SCAT Airlines is launching an intriguing new route. For those not familiar, SCAT is the second largest airline in Kazakhstan, and it operates a fleet of just over 30 jets, consisting primarily of Boeing 737s.
As of December 21, 2025, the airline will launch once weekly flights between Prague, Czech Republic (PRG), and Sanya, China (SYX). The flight will have a refueling stop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (BSZ), though funny enough, the way the airline published the route doesn’t show the stopover, so it appears nonstop at first glance.
The flight will operate on Sundays in both directions with the following schedule:
DV481 Sanya to Prague departing 8:05AM arriving 3:20PM
DV482 Prague to Sanya departing 4:50PM arriving 12:30PM (+1 day)
The airline will use a 213-seat all-economy Boeing 737 MAX 9 for the route. The 5,486-mile flight is blocked at 14hr15min westbound and 12hr40min eastbound. This is the world’s longest regularly scheduled one-stop Boeng 737 flight.
The stop in Bishkek is purely technical and to refuel, so everyone will be on the aircraft that whole time, and it breaks up each of the segments into being just under 3,000 miles. For those curious about how the flights will be staffed, SCAT also flies to both Prague and Sanya from Kazakstan, so I imagine the crews will be cycled onto these flights from those services.
Well that route definitely wasn’t on my bingo card!
I can totally see how there’s demand for a once weekly service like this. In particular, it’ll probably heavily have a Czech Republic point of sale, with people looking to travel to one of China’s popular tropical island destinations for warm weather.
While the flight is on sale to the public, I imagine many seats will be occupied by those booking affordable package holidays, which is ideal for these kinds of once weekly routes. So the service makes sense, there are just two things that make it surprising and noteworthy.
First, you wouldn’t necessarily expect an airline from Kazakstan to operate a route between the European Union and China. I mean, why not Mongolian Airlines or Air Vanuatu, while we’re at it (okay, I know why not, but you get my point?).
Second, I don’t see any way that this isn’t the world’s least pleasant flight. We’re talking about a 12-14 hour journey in Boeing 737 MAX economy without Wi-Fi or seat back entertainment, and with tight pitch.
Recently, I called Boliviana de Aviacion’s new route between Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI) and Washington Dulles (IAD) via Panama City (PTY) with a Boeing 737 the most miserable in the world, as that’s blocked at 10+ hours in each direction. But that’s nothing compared to SCAT’s new route, which is two to four hours longer.
Bottom line
In December 2025, Kazakstan’s SCAT Airlines will launch a new route between Prague and Sanya, with a refueling stop in Bishkek. Not only is this service incredibly random (not the route as such, but the airline operating it), but this is also easily the most unpleasant flight out there, given that some passengers will spend over 14 hours on a Boeing 737 MAX. Yowzers.
What do you make of SCAT’s new route?
