Recently you will have read our reports about how some airlines have managed to circumvent Russian airspace.

How airlines are avoiding Russian airspace

Now comes news from Bloomberg that Cathay Pacific is planning to jump on the bandwagon.

However in the case of Cathay Pacific this would be the longest nonstop flight.

It would be even longer (in terms of flown mileage) than SIA’s Singapore-New York ultra long-haul which currently holds the world record.

Cathay Pacific’s flight would operate nonstop only on the New York JFK to Hong Kong sector. It would take advantage of favourable tailwinds.

Its flight distance would be 16,618 km or 10,326 miles and the route would be over the Atlantic, the UK, Southern Europe and Central Asia.

A Cathay Pacific spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that its A350-1000 aircraft was capable of operating this route.

“The transatlantic option relies on the facilitation of strong seasonal tailwinds at this time of year.”

The flight time could be between 16 and 17 hours “thereby making it more favourable than the transpacific option.”

Fuel consumption is said to be the same as if Cathay Pacific were to take the transpacific route.

I ought to point out that news of this development was contained in an internal company memo seen by Bloomberg.

The Cathay Pacific spokesperson was unable to comment further according to the news agency.

Finally although airlines of mainland China overfly Russian airspace most if not all other Asian carriers are cautious and avoid it at time of writing.

cathaypacific.com