Last month marked 44 years since the 
Boeing 767 made its first flight, and 43 years since the type entered service with United Airlines. The widebody twinjet has proven to be a popular design, initially with passenger airlines and subsequently with cargo specialists, with more than 1,300 units produced.
Today, the Boeing 767 is not as common on the passenger scene as before, with both its age and inferior operating economics compared to next-generation small widebodies causing airlines to shy away from it in favor of new jets. Still, the jet has plenty of flying left in it, as evidenced by the longest routes that it is currently scheduled to serve. Let’s see where these corridors take it, and with which airlines.
United Airlines Operates The 767’s Two Longest Routes
According to current scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, the aircraft from the 767 family are rostered on two routes longer than 5,000 miles this month. In both cases, United Airlines uses the Boeing 767-300ER to fly daily from its Houston (IAH) hub.
The destinations in question are Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) in the Netherlands and Rio de Janeiro Galeão International Airport (GIG) in Brazil. These facilities are respectively located 5,013 and 5,016 miles (8,068 and 8,072.5 km) from Houston, and command block times of around 10.5 hours. While passenger demand for the 767 has dwindled, Boeing still sees interest from cargo airlines, and it explains that:
“Boeing continues to see strong market demand for 767 airplanes, which offer outstanding operational efficiency and payload configuration.”
US Carriers Dominate The 767’s Longest Routes
United Airlines and its US ‘big three’ legacy rival Delta Air Lines also fly aircraft from the Boeing 767 family on routes that clock in just shy of the 5,000-mile mark. For instance, originating at its East Coast hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in the US federal state of New Jersey, United operates two variants from the Boeing 767 family on the 4,956-mile (7,976 km) transatlantic route to Athens (ATH).
This includes the larger Boeing 767-400ER, which United plans to deploy on this route on a daily basis following the switch to the IATA Winter Schedule at the end of the month. Until then, it is flying low-density 167-seat examples of the smaller (but more popular) 767-300ER variant three times a week. This layout consists of 46 Polaris business class seats, 22 Premium Plus recliners, and 99 economy seats.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines’ longest route with the Boeing 767 is the domestic corridor from New York (JFK) to Honolulu (HNL), with data from Cirium showing that this corridor from the East Coast to Hawaii clocks in at 4,983 miles (8,019 km) in length. The SkyTeam founding member uses the Boeing 767-300ER on this route, which, for context, has a typical maximum range of 6,880 miles (11,070 km) per Smart Aviation.
What About Non-US Operators?
Away from Delta and United, three non-US airlines operate 767 flights longer than 4,000 miles. The most numerous of these can be found at Austrian Airlines, whose variant of choice is the 767-300ER. This October, the carrier will fly the type daily on the 4,464-mile (7,184 km) route from Vienna (VIE) to Washington (IAD), with lower frequencies on the shorter corridors to Boston (BOS) and Montreal (YUL).
Elsewhere, LATAM Airlines Peru will deploy the Boeing 767-300ER daily between its main hub at Lima Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) and Southern California’s Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) this month. This route is 4,167 miles (6,706 km) long, and data from Cirium shows that the LATAM Airlines Peru Boeing 767-300ER aircraft that serve it have 19 business and 211 economy class seats.
Brazilian carrier Azul is the third and final non-US carrier to have 767-operated flights longer than 4,000 miles penciled in this summer, albeit operated by aircraft from Portuguese charter specialists EuroAtlantic Airways. This month, these 267-seat examples of the Boeing 767-300ER will link Belo Horizonte (CNF) with Orlando International Airport (MCO) 22 times in each direction, or five times a week.
