Why There Are NO Flights Between East Asia & South America

Video provided by Getty Images

[veeslog]

So in 2 seconds: it's too far for planes to fly non-stop.

[Simoo]

The fact that South America is on the other side of the globe compared to Southeast Asia just gives a perspective how gargantuan the Pacific ocean actually is.

[charlie]

ah yes, this explains why it took me over 40 hours to get from Chile to Thailand. +bonus: on the last leg of the flight from Sao Pablo to Santiago, there was some type of storm or volcanic eruption (?) and we had to fly down to Buenos Aires and then over the Andes to Santiago, which added like 4 to 5 hours to our flight time (and a lot of turbulences). I never felt so sick and done with my life after that flight.

[mailfueranca]

There’s also the safety issue. Most routes are over land so that in case of an emergency the aircraft can approach the nearest airport. Try finding one in the Pacific Ocean 🌊

[Flixxel]

I’m Brazilian and indeed flying to Asia is such a pain in the ass. Not only there is the enormous distance, the timezones will give you one hell of a jetlag. I flew from Sao Paulo to Bangkok last year via Frankfurt. Left my house on monday and arrived in my hotel on wednesday. Saw the sun set and rise four times...

[RealLifeLore]

Hey y’all. For the context of this video, I’m specifically referring to “Asia” as “East Asia” and to a lesser extent southern and southeastern Asia, which is the actual geographic region with no direct flights to South America. There are multiple flights to Brazil from countries in the Middle East, which is of course also part of Asia, but that isn’t the region I’m focusing this video on. I apologize for not clarifying this distinction in the video itself.

Thank you for the comments pointing this out ✌️

[larryjohnwong]

Demand is another factor. Technically it's not impossible to fly direct from Asia to South America: it's about 6850 nmi from Mumbai, India to Salvador, Brazil, a distance that even the 77W can handle. But I suppose the demand is low.

[martam]

There's one more important commercial reason. It's a lot more risk to expect long and expensive flights to be fully booked and meet the revenue goals. This is why even shorter distances like Europe to SE Asia have a change in one of the major hubs - people who fly one leg disperse to various other routes for their second leg. Everyone pretty much meets in one place to take second plane to the final destination. Anyone who had a change in airports like Vienna, Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul (I'm in Europe, but I'm sure your continent has equivalents), could get a feeling that airport is very very busy... and then 2-4h later it's a ghost town.

This type of transport problem has a name - spoke-hub distribution paradigm. Any flights that can't be incorporated into existing hub model are more risk to manage, they are outside of the existing flights network (within a certain airline) and any revenue mitigation for seasonality or popularity of the destination is just difficult.

[Altazor-fhof]

I feel like most of this confusion stems from maps often omitting the pacific ocean, people don't realize how HUGE it actually is.

[QuarioQuario]

Why does YouTube think he’s speaking Japanese

[molokom]

Is it just me or did anyone also notice (between 2:52 and 3:37) the continents on the other side are upside down, with North America at the bottom and South America at the top?

[viperine]

Some decades ago there was a direct South Polar flight from South America to Australia (and back) and then to other countries in Asia. After that, during the nineties and 2000’s Malaysia Airlines was the only regional airlines flying directly from Kuala Lumpur to Buenos Aires (and back) with 2 stopovers in Johannesburg and Cape Town. I guess costs was an issue and after operating with 747’s very successfully, those flights stoped.

[rn]

Emirates Dubai to Rio flight: allow me to introduce myself

[izzonj]

This could have been about 5 seconds long if they simply said, "It's too far."

[cyberslan]

My longest travel in plane was Paris/Hong-Kong in 1992 aboard a 747, it landed at the ancien airport in the middle of the bay. It was a difficult one for pilot. Everyone applaused.

[annakareninacamara]

Just a side note: technichally feasible? Yes, it is. But it's probably way too expensive to be profitable, so airline companies wouldn't be interested in buying an aircraft that flies extra 3, 000 miles (which is good for one route only), and spend tons more in fuel and on the cost of the aircraft itself. So no manufacturer will ever spend time developing an airplane for this narrow specific market. Unless there's a breakthrough on fuel consumption/weight technology, or some weird billionaire decides to fly from South America to Asia every week and is willing to pay for that.

[DisasterxUs]

You really turned a one sentence answer into a 7 minute video... impressive 👏👏👏

[nicktr.]

"Because it's too far"

Here, saved you all 7 minutes

[yahschief]

The real reason is because the map is a lie. Look at Gleason's New Standard Map Of The World, then you will understand

[MatheusRoyale]

"While São Paulo [...]"

The Map: *P E R U*