World’s Shortest and Longest Flights - From 53 Seconds to 20 Hours!

What’s it like to fly on World’s Shortest 53 seconds flight or fly on the World’s Longest 20 hours flight non-stop?
 
The shortest flight in the world is between Westray and Papa Westray, the flight distance is just 2 miles. These two islands are part of the Orkney Islands off the shore of Scotland. One way ticket cost 17 pounds for the 2-minute flight. Sometimes it can go as fast as 53 seconds from takeoff to landing, depending on the direction of the wind.

What’s the shortest jet flight in the world? Air France uses a widebody 777 to fly 16 miles from Brazzaville to Kinshasa. This is also the world's shortest international flight - A flight that lasts for an average of 14 minutes.

The longest non-stop commercial flight in the world happened during COVID in 2020. Air Tahiti Nui operated nonstop flights from Papeete, Tahiti to Paris, covering a distance of 9,765 miles made possible by a crew of four pilots with eastbound tailwinds.

Currently, the longest non-stop scheduled commercial flight is between Singapore and New York with Singapore Airlines. The route was launched in 2004 initially flown by A340-500 then it was re-launched in 2018 with A350-900 ULR.  There is no economy class on this flight! The Pilot gave an interesting briefing about the 3 different routes this flight can take…

Qantas in 2025 will be launching the world’s longest flight between Sydney and London, covering a distance of 10,573 miles. I was onboard QANTAS project sunrise trial flight in 2019 from London to Sydney with seeing double sunrise. Qantas currently also flies the World’s second-longest flight between Perth and London and third longest flight between Melbourne and Dallas.

Research: Sharad Ranabhat

[worldsightseer]

Hi Sam, The shortest flight I have taken was between Oakland, California and San Francisco, California on PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) in 1973. I was on a business trip from Oakland to San Diego, California, with a stop in San Francisco. We took off, flew over San Francisco Bay and landed, about 4 minutes, highest flight point 1, 000 feet. It was a Boeing 727, and I always liked using the rear stairway. I have watched all of your videos over the years, thank you so much for sharing.

[TheMaartian]

I've flown the route between Papeete and Moorea in an old De Havilland Twin Otter with canvas seats. Only one pilot, sitting on the right side, with his window open and his arm resting on the sill, like he was driving a car. The old wooden ferry serving the route sank (it was recovered and is now a restaurant over on the leeward side of Moorea), so now it's air service. We departed from a small building near the end of the runway at Papeete's F'a'a'a airport and could see the Moorea runway from the ground. Time in the air? 7 minutes. Very cool! Unfortunately, like the sinking of the ferry, flight 1121 departing from Moorea on 9 August 2007 went down, with the loss of all 20 souls aboard. So sad.

[Emperoneroh]

I’ve flown the stretch from Kinshasa to Brazzaville on Ethiopian Airways and it was about 12 minutes on a Boeing 787. The Addis - Kinshasa - Addis service has a short stop over in Brazzaville as they merge passengers from both cities to Addis.

[MrJoDrumz]

Hi Sam, my name is Jojo, from Cagayan. my first shortest flight was back in 1987 flying out from my hometown to Cebu City on a PAL BAC 1-11. My longest one was in 2013; a PAL flight from San Francisco to Manila. By the way, thank you for sharing to us your love for aviation.

[PaulGodfrey]

There are some pretty short routes in the South of England. Sky Bus to the Scilly's is 20 mins from Lands End and 30 minutes from Newquay. The view of the Cornish Coastline from the air is wonderful.

[ericbolt]

Hi Sam,
The shortest scheduled flight in the Southern Hemisphere is from Tonga to E'ua TBU-EUA, distance 15 miles. Flight time is 3 to 5 minutes. Currently served by a Harbin Y12, absolutely worth the trip if you ever get to the Kingdom of Tonga.
Cheers Eric

[carlh.]

The shortest flight I have ever took so far was 40 minutes from OGG to HNL on a Boeing 717 operated by Hawaiian Airlines, the longest was 15.5 hours from HKG to DFW on a Boeing 777-300ER operated by American Airlines. I have never had a chance to fly in a turboprop aircraft, and this is on my bucket list.

[AfonsoGalego]

Hello Sam. Great idea to cover the shortest as well as the longest flights ever made. Undoubtedly very interesting. For my part, unfortunately, I don't have much to share. Although aviation fascinates me and I enjoy learning new things about it, I only had the pleasure of flying it twice. Although both flights were extremely identical (one way and the other return) the duration of both was different (a difference of a few minutes), that is, one of them was the longest flight I have ever experienced and the other it was the shortest flight I have ever experienced. The longest flight was a flight from Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport in Porto (OPO), Portugal to Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport in Bologna (BLQ), Italy, on a Boeing 737-8AS operated by Ryanair, which took approximately 2h 50min. The shortest flight was a flight from Milan Bergamo Orio al Serio Int'l Airport in Milan (BGY), Italy to Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport in Porto (OPO), Portugal, again on a Boeing 737-8AS operated by Ryanair, this flight lasted about 2h 30min. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this sharing Sam, even though it might seem a little pointless... hahah. Keep up the good work Sam.

[naytaylor]

I flew between St. Louis and Salt Lake City, Tampa to Atlanta, Atlanta to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Kailua-Kona. These were done on separate trips. ATL-HNL was 9 hours, which was my longest real-world flight. Nowhere near Newark to Singapore

[ramonriosjr]

Hi Sam - I have flown:
LHR - SYD - LHR via SIN on BA & QF
LAX - DXB - LAX on EK
DFW - DXB - DFW on EK
SFO - SIN - SFO on SQ
LAX - BNE on QF

And in December I have SFO - DOH on QR and in January DXB - SFO on EK scheduled.

Keep up the great work on the videos!

[chrisnye]

Hi Sam, the longest flight I did was 15hrs between Seoul Korea and New York on A380. Unfortunately I had a fractured shoulder and was traveling home to Toronto Canada for treatment. I had a window economy seat and never left it for the whole flight because I couldn’t get up with people in the other 2 seats very easy.

[PlaneSpottingSingapore]

I know someone who just flew the Singapore to New York yesterday and was not jet lagged. I flew the New York to Singapore with the layover in Frankfurt flight. It is a pretty good route as it is pretty chill and easy going.

[williamtrost]

Back in the Continental Airline days, I flew their shuttle from Houston Hobby to Houston Intercontinental. That was about a 23 min flight if I remember correctly. Currently, the longest nonstop I've taken is IAD to NRT on United.

[Counterforce]

I always like the 6-9 hour flights in business class from Europe to UAE and from there to south east Asia. Etihad or Emirates, both very nice. Love the 380 and 777. Flew with Qatar in January and it had a bar in the sky, awesome.

[avgeekinfotainment]

Sam, as you mentioned the shortest jet widebody flights: what is the longest scheduled turboprop regional aircraft flight in the world? Over ten years ago I flew from Berne BRN, Switzerland to Thessaloniki SKG in Greece on a Dornier Do328, about 3 hours block time. Fun flight, but my back hurt after that😂

[FishyPlaysYT]

Hi Sam!
Great video. About the question you ask, I only have one answer which was my shortest flight. The longest flight I've had was 12-13 Hours so pretty standard but the shortest flight I've ever done was from St Maarten to Saba. The flight was done in a DHC-6 Twin Otter run by Winair. Flight time is around 15 minutes and you get to land on the world's shortest commercial runway (which is on Saba). The flight is also international.

[ianturner]

Hi Sam, love your posts! I used to fly the Hong Kong San - Fransisco route when it was serviced by a Pan Am short bodied 747SP, it was supposed to take 15 hours but sometimes it couldn't quite make it because the head winds or for other reasons the fuel load was insufficient and so it stopped en route, frequently at Okinawa going West, or Honolulu going East. Those were the days after 14 1/2 hours in the air looking out the window waiting for Hong Kong island lights to appear off the starboard side! Then the heart stopping landing at Kai Tak absolutely amazing!

[ningboflyer]

The shortest flight I have flown is between my hometown Ningbo and Shanghai Pudong, around 150 kms. It was primarily used as a flight connecting passengers who are flying domestic or international from China Eastern's hub Pudong International Airport. It was a daily flight, however, it was suspended during the the zero-Covid era due to low demand. The flight between these two places has been restored recently. Now, it is actually the positioning flight for Shanghai Airlines' Ningbo-Budapest flight. The flight now only operates twice per week. The longest flight I took was Cathay Pacific's HongKong-London service, for around 12 hours.

[zakmoh]

Nice one, Sam. I was expecting to see DXB to AKL and DOH to AKL flights in the list too.

[weikeattan]

Hi, Mr sam, I'm from Malaysia
My shortest flight is one hour domestic route in Malaysia..
My longest flight is five hours flight from Malaysia to Taiwan.. hope you see my comments.. you are the reason I love aviation