At 18 hours and 40 minutes one way, this route will offer one of the world’s longest passenger flights.
The Manhattan skyline as seen from the Rockefeller Center. (Photo: Jonathan Riley/Unsplash)
Now might not seem like an ideal time to restart ultra-long-haul services anywhere in the world, but the Lion City’s national carrier is forging ahead with plans for the rebuild of its intercontinental network. Starting November 9, Singapore Airlines will operate thrice-weekly flights to New York, switching its destination from Newark Liberty International Airport in neighboring New Jersey to Queens’ John F. Kennedy International Airport. SIA is deploying a standard Airbus A350-900 with 253 seats to better accommodate a mix of passenger and cargo traffic, and has billed the new service as the only nonstop cargo link between Singapore and the northeastern United States.
Clocking in at 18 hours and 40 minutes one way, the Singapore–New York JFK route will be slightly longer than the carrier’s existing nonstop flights to Los Angeles, which continued operating throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. SIA previously flew from Singapore to Newark while running regular services between Changi and JFK via Frankfurt. The airline says it will assess the growing demand for air travel before reinstating flights to destinations such as Houston, Seattle, and San Francisco.
“Despite the challenging times for the airline industry, there are some early signs of optimism about a recovery in air travel,” said SIA executive vice president Lee Lik Hsin in a statement. “Our customers say that they are increasingly confident about air travel, given the robust health and safety measures that are in place, as well as testing regimes to protect them and our staff.”
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