The world’s longest flight has taken off between Shanghai and Buenos Aires

Unless you can afford to shell out for the more comfortable business class options or better on a flight, most of us don’t want to be maximising our time spent sitting in an airplane seat. However, long-haul direct flights are often still the most convenient way to get from one place to another – there’s no need to run across terminals, and there’s a lower chance of your luggage getting lost between airports.

Until this December, the absolute longest flight you could take was the Singapore Airlines route between Singapore and New York, which covers 9,500 miles. But now, China Eastern Airlines has launched a flight between Shanghai and Buenos Aires, covering 12,500 miles, almost half the circumference of the planet. 

China Eastern Airlines, one of China’s three biggest commercial airlines, says this is the first commercial route connecting antipodal cities, which are cities on opposite sides of the planet.

Technically, this isn’t the world’s longest non-stop flight route, though – that honour still goes to Singapore Airlines’ New York route. The Shanghai to Buenos Aires flight includes a two-hour stop in Auckland, New Zealand. It doesn’t require passengers to change planes but does involve a brief layover.

This flight operates twice a week between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Buenos Aires’ Ministro Pistarini Airport. While the flight is 29 hours long departing from Argentina, it’s four hours less departing from Shanghai, taking just 25 hours. Before the launch of this route, the quickest available journey (a non-direct flight with layover) was 31 hours.

Australia’s Qantas intends to take the title of the longest non-stop direct flight in 2027, with a route that connects Sydney and New York – make sure to bring a neck pillow for this one. 

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