We are seeing things in aviation like never before – huge airlines grounding a majority of their fleets, airlines cutting schedules for months to come, runways lined with airplanes and more.
One of the other things is the airlines that are flying routes that they never have before as repatriations are happening on a mass scale. Countries around the world are working to get their citizens home and this has created some interesting routes!
Austrian Airlines is Flying Their Longest Flight Ever – 17 Hours to Sydney!
For example, Air Tahiti flew the longest passenger-scheduled flight ever from Papeete to Paris. Airlines are flying from countries they had not before flown to the US and many more flights.
One going on right now is an Austrian Airlines 777 flying from Vienna to Sydney to bring home their people. This is the longest flight they have ever flown. Austrian says it is a 17+hour plus flight and one that is 10,000 miles (16,000km) in length. This is the first time they have done this route and it will certainly be a long one for the passengers on the return as well.
Over 17 hours flight time, 16,000 km distance. Our Boeing 777, the OE-LPD, just took off for the longest flight in more than 60 years of company history: nonstop from Vienna to Sydney picking up repatriates. 💪🛫🇦🇹 Follow OS 1457 live @flightradar24. pic.twitter.com/pV7UVMybKZ
— Austrian Airlines (@_austrian) March 29, 2020
Consider this – before airlines put such a long route in place, they do test flights with media, passenger surveys, etc. Make no mistake – this plane can make the flight but this is definitely a new one for the passengers as they had never thought they would fly their country’s flagged carrier from Sydney all the way home to Vienna!
You can track this flight as it makes its way to Sydney through this link for FlightRadar 24. At present, they have another 13 hours to go and are estimated to arrive at 1:41PM local time tomorrow. Austrian has given this flight the flight number of OS1457 but FlightRadar has it as OS1
