Boeing 777 will fly world’s longest airline route

                                             

Emirates airlines will soon be using the Boeing Co.’s 777 to fly the world’s longest airliner route.

 

According to a report from Bloomberg, the airline will introduce a route between Dubai and Panama City using a Boeing 777-200LR in February.

 

At 8,590 miles, the route will supplant the existing distance king — Qantas’s Sydney to Dallas route — by 10.5 miles.

 

The Emirates flight will take 17 hours and 35 minutes, according to the Great Circle Mapper website. Leading the way on the new route will be components made by Spirit AeroSystems Inc. in Wichita.

 

Spirit builds the forward cab and other components on the 777 for Boeing.

 

The longest-ever nonstop route was the 19-hour route to Newark, N.J. once operated by Singapore Airlines. Those flights ceased in 2013, along with a route to Los Angeles, over what analysts believed to be concerns about the economic viability of the flights using older Airbus A340 aircraft.

 

The 777-200LR, which has a typical range of about 10,563 miles, set a commercial record in 2005 when it flew 21,000 miles from Hong Kong to London with minimal passenger load.

 

(Daniel McCoy - Wichita Business Journal)