World's
longest nonstop flight: Tickets go on sale
(CNN) — Singapore to New York, nonstop. Almost 20 hours in the air.
Starting October 11, passengers
on Singapore Airlines' newest plane, the Airbus A350-900ULR -- for Ultra
Long-Range -- will travel on a record-breaking, globe-spanning flight that will
reconnect the two major metropolises.
The airline used to fly the gas-guzzling, four-engine A340-500 on the 9,500-mile route, with just 100 business-class seats on board. The
service proved to be inefficient, and Singapore Airlines canceled the flights
in 2013.
The new flights will initially
run three times a week, with daily operations starting October 18 after a
second Airbus A350-900 enters service.
Tickets go on sale May 31,
2018.
The airline is now taking
delivery of Airbus' newest wide-body, the A350-900. It has 21 planes in its
fleet, of an order for 67 aircraft.
Singapore Airlines has ordered
seven of the ULRs.
On April 23, the plane had its
first test flight, an almost five-hour round-trip that launched from the
airframer's assembly plant in Toulouse, France.
The ULR will be able to fly a
remarkable 11,160 miles, an increase of more than 1,800 miles over the standard
A350. It means that Singapore Airlines will reclaim a travel crown:
that of running the world's longest nonstop air route.
But how will passengers
comfortably fly -- or perhaps endure -- a flight that lasts the better part of
a full day?
That's three hours longer than
the Qantas Airlanes 787 flight from Perth to Londonexperienced in March by CNN's Richard Quest.
"The A350 is a clean-sheet
design that has been designed for those long-range flights," Florent
Petteni, Airbus' aircraft interiors marketing director for the A350, tells CNN
Travel.
All A350s share Airbus' design
philosophy that makes the aircraft cabin feel more like a room, rather than a
long tube. The plane has high ceilings, sophisticated LED lighting, almost
vertical sidewalls and a low noise level.
These features, along with a
maximum in-cabin simulated altitude of just 6,000 feet, all combine to provide
an improved passenger experience, according to Petteni.
"You may not exactly
pinpoint why it's so comfortable and so nice to be flying on this airplane, but
everything was done on purpose."
Like the windows.
Causative verb:
1. The plane had its first test flight.
2. Airbus' design philosophy that makes the aircraft cabin.
Reference:
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/singapore-new-york-worlds-longest-nonstop-flight/index.html
