Wait No More: World's Longest Flight to New York Starts October

(Bloomberg) -- Mark your calendars -- Singapore Airlines Ltd. has set the date for restarting its nonstop service to New York.

The world’s longest flight begins Oct. 11, the airline said in a statement Wednesday. Singapore Air will use Airbus SE’s A350-900 Ultra Long Range aircraft for the almost 19-hour flight from Singapore to the Newark Liberty International Airport serving New York.

Reviving the route that the Singapore flag carrier scrapped more than four years ago will help the airline fill a gap in its U.S. network that has benefited rivals including Qantas Airways Ltd. and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. Singapore Air’s new service -- which will overtake Qatar Airways’ Doha-Auckland route as the world’s longest -- will initially offer three flights in the first week, increasing to daily from Oct. 18.

The airline will have 67 business class and 94 premium economy seats on the New York flight. Singapore Air scrapped all-business-class daily flights from the city-state to Los Angeles and Newark, New Jersey, in 2013 because the routes were unprofitable using aircraft with four engines, analysts have said.

The carrier has ordered seven of the more fuel-efficient twin-engine A350-900ULRs. It will receive the first of the aircraft in September, with the remainder be delivered by the end of this year. The planes will also be used for direct flights to Los Angeles, with more details to be announced later, Singapore Air said.

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