The 10 Longest Major Routes in the World Without Non-Stop Flights

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Doug Parker’s first brush with unions as a kid (NYT)

    I worked in a Teamsters warehouse in Detroit for Kroger. It was a learning experience. At one point, the break horn blows and I kept working. This guy pulls up next to me and goes, “What are you doing?” I said my work wasn’t done and I needed to keep going. He goes: “We don’t work through breaks. Drop that pallet and get into the break room now.”

  • The longest routes with large numbers of passengers yet no non-stop service. Five of the top 10 are from the U.S. and generally leisure routes – LA and New York – Bangkok (both used to be served by Thai), LA and San Francisco – Ho Chi Minh City (which seem likely to lose money if Vietnam Airlines tried it), and New York – Dhaka, Bangladesh.

  • Star Alliance member Austrian Airlines, part of Lufthansa Group, is a great boutique full service airline but is embarking on cost cutting. Routes between Austria and Germany that don’t originate in Vienna will be taken over by Lufthansa. Four European routes will be taken over by Eurowings. And they’re cutting back Los Angeles service and eliminating Miami service. Customers in affected markets will, I think, miss their catering the most.

  • Boeing seems likely to miss end of year goal for FAA recertification of the 737 MAX

    Boeing’s stated goal of having the MAX re-certified by the FAA before the end of the year appears to be in jeopardy, as this audit must be completed before a final test flight and the agency will require at least 30 days after that flight to re-certify the aircraft. With seven weeks remaining in the year, it now appears highly probable that recertification may not take place until 2020, with airline re-entry into service in the March/April time frame at the earliest.

  • Twitter users unite to help find owner of toy unicorn lost at Heathrow

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Vietnam is a great country and all but I don’t see the demand for long haul direct flights there justifying the cost to an airline, not to mention the backpacker crowd are going to look for bargain basement flights and not being willing to pay for a luxury flight. I do think direct flights from the US to BKK makes sense because that airport would make a nice hub feeding to other countries in the region including vietnam. Maybe people don’t want to go through hong kong at this point and singapore while a great airport is a bit far south for some of the northern countries in the region. BKK would be a good compromise not to mention the number of tourists wanting to go to Thailand.

  2. Pretty sure Boeing PR were the only ones claiming that disaster of a plane would be certified by the end of the year.

  4. Every flight stops. Non-stop flight is a silly phrase like saying a spacecraft “re-enters” the atmosphere when its just entry.

  5. This seems way off. No way that Saigon-LAX and SF-LAX have more passenger traffic than BKK-LAX and BKK-SFO. Bangkok was the most visited city in the world last year, no way SGN, a secondary market, beat out the most visited city in the world. I don’t believe these numbers. Check your math.

  7. Vietnam has tons of refugees emigrated to the State. That is why the SFO-SGN and LAX-SGN are very well underserved. Family visiting market is larger than the tourist market.

  8. @John – A “non-stop” flight indicates that it does not stop on its way to its destination. This is opposed to a “direct” flight which may make a stop en route. FWIW “re-entry” makes perfect sense since every spacecraft that enters the atmosphere first exited it.
    @Gary – That is an interesting list, although it isn’t hard to see how the routes that are currently feasible with available aircraft would be unlikely to produce the yields necessary to make them profitable. They are largely leisure routes or routes frequented by immigrant communities that are generally very price sensitive.

  9. Wasn’t there some inspection or regulatory snafu at BKK and/or with Thai Air that prevented nonstop flights to the US?

  10. @Raj – Thai airlines cannot start new routes to the U.S. because of the status of the country’s regulatory authority. There used to be non-stops but those were pulled years ago due to economics

  11. The only route involving Indonesia is Paris-Bali. I would have thought more flights to Jakarta or Bali would make the list. Certainly long enough.

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