Travel restrictions lead to world’s longest flight

On 14 March, travel restrictions imposed by the US led to an Air Tahiti Nui 787-9 Dreamliner making the history books.

Flight TN064 took off from Papeete, French Polynesia, at 2:45am (local time), flying a distance of 15,715 kilometres direct to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, France. The previous longest route, which runs from Singapore to Newark (New Jersey), is 15,434 kilometres in length.

The Dreamliner made the journey in a total of 16 hours and 30 minutes.

The route usually involves a stopover at Los Angeles International, at which point passengers must alight the aircraft and proceed through border control checkpoints before being allowed to continue.

Tahiti is the largest island of French Polynesia, which is administered as an integral part of the French Republic. With the US temporarily banning flights and/or incoming passengers from France, the flight was prevented from stopping over in LAX.

Air Tahiti Nui made it clear that this was a temporary measure, intended to circumvent the problem until alternative layovers are arranged. These are reported to be Guadeloupe, as well as unspecified Canadian airports. 

Thanks to COVID-19, Air Tahiti Nui broke the standing record for the longest non-stop passenger flight (by distance). The Monday morning arrival of TN064 set a new record of 9,765 miles. The 787-9 traveled from Papeete to Charles de Gaulle in 16 hours. pic.twitter.com/f5cnuVFcB5

— AeroDork (@AeroDork) March 17, 2020