On March 14, Air Tahiti Nui flew the longest ever scheduled passenger flight by distance transiting 9,765 miles across the world from Papeete, in Tahiti, French Polynesia, to Paris. This one-off milestone was a direct consequence of the #coronavirus induced US travel restrictions.
This route usually involves a scheduled stopover at Los Angeles Airport. But when an airplane stops over in the US, all passengers must alight the aircraft and proceed through US Customs and Border Protection before they’re allowed to advance on with the next leg of their journey. Current restrictions rendered this part of the journey untenable, so instead, flight TN064 just carried straight on, departing at 3 a.m. local time and arriving in Paris at 6:30 a.m. local time on March 15.
This flight, which was airborne for just under 16 hours, became the world’s longest commercial flight in terms of distance traveled. It also became the world’s longest scheduled domestic flight, because it traveled between French Polynesia and mainland France.
The aircraft flew with a “reinforced crew” of four pilots and was operated by a “next-generation aircraft” a Boeing 787-9, twin-engine Dreamliner taking advantage of favorable winds and with a light passenger load.
Note – Some videos/images used are just for representation and are not actual.
#WorldsLongestDomesticFlight
Credits –
TUBS / CC BY-SA (
Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA / CC BY-SA (