The World's New Longest Nonstop Flight Is 19 Hours 20 Minutes

As hard as it might be to believe it, Singapore Airlines has lost the crown as the operator of the world’s longest nonstop passenger flight. In its place is the little-discussed Chinese carrier Xiamen Air, whose service from New York JFK back to Fuzhou is blocked at 19h 20m. While this is not a new route (it operated between 2017 and 2020 and returned in 2024), it seems to be the first time the block time has been that high.

Obviously, the airport pair is very long on a great circle distance basis, which measures the shortest distance between two airports. It covers 6,752 nautical miles (12,505 km) each way. But the reason for the eye-watering time is that it avoids Russian airspace.

The World’s 5 Longest Nonstop Passenger Flights In November/December

Credit: Shutterstock

The entries have a maximum block time (which is chocks-off-to-chocks-on) of between 18h 10m and 19h 20m. A problem with such articles is that readers may think some nonstop markets will be timed similarly. After all, many other markets have a substantial time.

Qantas operates various extremely long nonstop flights, such as from Dallas, which is the world’s third-busiest airport, back to Melbourne (17h 40m). It also has Perth-London Heathrow (17h 40m), JFK back to Auckland (17h 40m), Perth-Paris CDG (17h 35m), etc.

Then there’s United Airlines from San Francisco to Singapore (17h 40m) and Houston to Sydney (17h 35m), Singapore Airlines back to Changi from Los Angeles(17h 50m) and San Francisco (17h 30m), etc. Air India would have featured, but its San Francisco services now stop in Kolkata en route back to Bengaluru and Delhi.

Xiamen Air From JFK Back To Fuzhou

Credit: Flightradar24

This very long route is an anomaly. As Xiamen Air does not operate through Russian airspace en route to or from the US, its block time is necessarily much higher than it otherwise would be. It is also meaningfully higher than some routes, such as China Eastern from JFK back to Guangzhou, that’s longer by the great circle difference.

While Xiamen Air avoids Russia, Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern avail of shorter, quicker routes through the country. Cathay Pacific also overflies Russia to/from the US/Canada at times. As such, their times are necessarily lower than Xiamen Air’s. For example, Cathay from JFK back to Hong Kong is timed at up to 16h 25m, while China Southern to Guangzhou is up to 16h 20m. Xiamen Air stands out like a sore thumb.

The market between the Big Apple and Fuzhou is large, which is because many Chinese immigrants are from that area of China. NYC even has Little Fuzhou. According to booking data for the 12 months to July 2025, 160,000 round-trip passengers flew between the two places. It was way larger than JFK to/from Guangzhou (98,000) and Beijing (140,000), but not as well-trafficked as Shanghai (195,000). JFK-Fuzhou was Cathay’s top US transit market.

What About This New 1-Stop Route?

Credit: Flickr

Let’s now move from nonstop to one-stop operations. On December 4, China Eastern will take off from Shanghai Pudong to Buenos Aires via Auckland. It will begin in time for Christmas and the peak season in the Southern Hemisphere. With three weekly flights on the 777-300ER, the one-stop service will be blocked at up to 29h.

The maximum time is available from Argentina back to China via New Zealand. To make it even worse, flights will depart from Buenos Aires at the horrific time of 02:00. Passengers will eventually arrive in China at 18:00 the following day.