Airliners.net

I know ,with the range of current aircraft, flying eastbound or westbound around the world can be done with 1 or 2 stops but do you ever see an airline attempting it?
I realize 5th freedom rights may have to come into play to make it profitable but what airline would attempt it?
What would the routing be? What cities and airports would be involved?

Some cargo airlines are operating round the world flights. QR just started one with DOH-MFM-LAX-MEX-LGG-DOH

What do you class as "around the world" - we already have Perth - Heathrow which is as close as it gets. If you mean flights around the world with multiple stops, its happened loads of times. UK tour operators sometimes do it, for a hefty price. I cant remember who, I am sure Monarch did it.

It has already been done by such airlines as Pan Am many years ago.

If anyone were to do it again, I'd say Air New Zealand if they ever re-started HKG-LHR...whereby they would be doing AKL-LAX-LHR-HKG-AKL (with 5th freedom rights on LAX-LHR and LHR-HKG) and vice versa. That said, Air New Zealand markets LAX-LHR currently with a focus on US and British O&D, rather than New Zealand.

Why should they?
BTW IMO this is the new RTW flight:
https://www.skyteam.com/en/round-the-world-planner/

If you're talking non-stop anti-podal flights, then NRT-GRU and NRT-RIO are about the longest you'll ever see someday.

United use to do it.

Lufthansa Cargo does it at regular intervals.

The former MyTravel, now Thomas Cook occasionally arranged charter flights.

If the winds are favorable, you can ride SIN-EWR-SIN where each goes east-bound.

If United starts SFO-DEL or SFO-BOM then it’s done


With onward service to EWR all they would have to do us change the flight number ( bring back UA 1 /2 for the entire route) and it’s official

DLPMMM wrote:

It has already been done by such airlines as Pan Am many years ago.

They could not due true round the world. PanAm could not fly SFO-JFK (per CAB limits) to complete it & TWA likewise could not do LAX-JFK to complete it.

Max Q wrote:

If United starts SFO-DEL or SFO-BOM then it’s done


With onward service to EWR all they would have to do us change the flight number ( bring back UA 1 /2 for the entire route) and it’s official

If it changes the route number it IS NOT a single round the world flight even if it it uses the same plane.

777222LR wrote:

United use to do it.

United never did a round the world flight. Star alliance does as a multi carrier option, but not as 1 airline. Only TWA & PanAm came close and the CAB blocked them from US west coast to east coast to complete it.

rbavfan wrote:

777222LR wrote:

United use to do it.

United never did a round the world flight. Star alliance does as a multi carrier option, but not as 1 airline. Only TWA & PanAm came close and the CAB blocked them from US west coast to east coast to complete it.

Back in the mid to late '90s, United did IAD-LHR-DEL-HKG-NRT-LAX-IAD (I think) DEL may have been BOM and LAX may have been SFO, but that was the gist of it.

SIN-EWR flyes around the world often when first TPAC then TATL

I do not expect anymore a passenger flight real around the world. Cargo flight yes.

SQ21/22 is a round the world flight:

SQ22 SIN-EWR on 4 Nov: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flig ... 2#1e6ff297
SQ21 EWR-SIN on 4 Nov: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flig ... 1#1e7203d0

However, if you insist it needs to be the same flight number then its will never happen. That just does not make any sense. Even the QR DOH-MFM-LAX-MEX-LGG-DOH routining which was mentioned uses multiple flight numbers.

Isn’t SQ the only ones that do it still?

SIN-EWR-JFK-FRA-SIN

I think In current terms that’s probably about as close as you’re likeky to get

OMAA

rbavfan wrote:

777222LR wrote:

United use to do it.

United never did a round the world flight. Star alliance does as a multi carrier option, but not as 1 airline. Only TWA & PanAm came close and the CAB blocked them from US west coast to east coast to complete it.

Yes they did

Wasn't it done with Concorde at one point with several stops?

Both United and Pan Am have done it in the past. You can probably add BA in there too if you count the old BOAC. I believe UA stopped in India and Hong Kong heading eastwards after departing Europe. You have to remember it was a different market then. Firstly there were less direct flights, there were less hubs and smaller aircraft struggled with range. Daily service wasn't expected to a lot of destinations. Then the really odd routes like Pan Am flying Singapore to Sydney or Air NZ flying from Port Moresby to Hong Kong. SIN and HKG as hubs were in their infancy. Let alone the ME3. If it's to happen again.... My bet is on an ME3 carrier been given 5th freedom rights across the pacific. But there needs to be a political reason to do so. Unless a major hub carrier fails in the region, I can't see that happening.

Mortyman wrote:

Wasn't it done with Concorde at one point with several stops?

Numerous times with Air France and British Airways. F-BTSD did the quickest RTW trips.

Didn't JAL do it via Tehran?

OMAAbound wrote:

Isn’t SQ the only ones that do it still?

SIN-EWR-JFK-FRA-SIN

I think In current terms that’s probably about as close as you’re likeky to get

OMAA

Curious about this one. They fly EWR-JFK, just as a positioning flight? Why not use either EWR or JFK as your NYC airport?

But what's the definition of round the world? If you mean flying America→Europe→Asia→America across all longitudes then a number of long transcontinental flight pick different direction in its both direction according to wind would natch the criteria.

TOGA10 wrote:

OMAAbound wrote:

Isn’t SQ the only ones that do it still?

SIN-EWR-JFK-FRA-SIN

I think In current terms that’s probably about as close as you’re likeky to get

OMAA

Curious about this one. They fly EWR-JFK, just as a positioning flight? Why not use either EWR or JFK as your NYC airport?

No this doesn’t happen, you’d take SIN-EWR on the A350, get an Uber to JFK, fly JFK-FRA-SIN on the A380 service they offer

OMAA

rbavfan wrote:

Max Q wrote:

If United starts SFO-DEL or SFO-BOM then it’s done


With onward service to EWR all they would have to do us change the flight number ( bring back UA 1 /2 for the entire route) and it’s official

If it changes the route number it IS NOT a single round the world flight even if it it uses the same plane.

Of course it is


That makes no sense

It is a question of definition of around the world. There are the flights that Icelandair has been chartered for, a special equipped 757-200, few comfortable seats, hoping from one airport to the other one way around the world.

alex0easy wrote:

Why should they?
BTW IMO this is the new RTW flight:
https://www.skyteam.com/en/round-the-world-planner/

I'm a bit confused about the question... round-the-world *tickets* have been available for a long time (as above) - my parents bought them as a wedding anniversary gift to themselves at least twenty years ago... so they could spend a month crossing continents visiting friends and places they always wanted to see.

An actual round-the-world flight (i.e. uninterrupted except for pit-stops) seems like an expensive waste of time. To everyone saying cargo does it... the aircraft may circumnavigate with stops, but the cargo itself will not - so from my point of view this doesn't fit the definition at all! Surely it's about the payload, not the aircraft...

OMAAbound wrote:

TOGA10 wrote:

OMAAbound wrote:

Isn’t SQ the only ones that do it still?

SIN-EWR-JFK-FRA-SIN

I think In current terms that’s probably about as close as you’re likeky to get

OMAA

Curious about this one. They fly EWR-JFK, just as a positioning flight? Why not use either EWR or JFK as your NYC airport?

No this doesn’t happen, you’d take SIN-EWR on the A350, get an Uber to JFK, fly JFK-FRA-SIN on the A380 service they offer

OMAA

Ah got you, thanks. Was curious cause I'll be flying the JFK-FRA segment soon (return) and was trying to figure out how they were doing that. Thanks for your reply.

FedEx does it both eastbound and westbound.

The "round the world definition" Ie: a flight Eastbound or Westbound that originates and terminates same station and goes around all the "meridians" in the process. As mentioned before both PAA and TWA offered these in the age of the Connies and later with 707. PAA Eastbound schedule was something like this: NYC-SNN-LON-IST-KHI-BKK-MNL-NRT-HNL-SFO-NYC the flights would operate eastbound and westbound. Well noted that 60 years of aeronautical improvements can make these now a 4 or 5 stop mission. But question remains; given todays environment what airline could make this offering work if not ONLY for the publicity value ?

irishpower wrote:

I know ,with the range of current aircraft, flying eastbound or westbound around the world can be done with 1 or 2 stops but do you ever see an airline attempting it?
I realize 5th freedom rights may have to come into play to make it profitable but what airline would attempt it?
What would the routing be? What cities and airports would be involved?

EWR-DEL flies "around" the world technically, as I believe it keeps going "East" (over the north Pole) due to the winds...

aemoreira1981 wrote:

If anyone were to do it again, I'd say Air New Zealand if they ever re-started HKG-LHR...whereby they would be doing AKL-LAX-LHR-HKG-AKL (with 5th freedom rights on LAX-LHR and LHR-HKG) and vice versa. That said, Air New Zealand markets LAX-LHR currently with a focus on US and British O&D, rather than New Zealand.

Actually, that could probably be marketed as a round-the-world flight.
Somebody in LAX having to travel to both LON and HKG in the same trip may look it attractive.

But in this age, seems only airlines like SQ, EK and perhaps QR, QF might be up to offer such a product.
SQ just needs to link the same North American destination to SIN via Asia and via Europe.
EK and QR one of their destinations in the Pacific with another on the opposite coast.
QF South America or North America with Europe.

AI flies around the world DEL-SFO-DEL.

xdlx wrote:

The "round the world definition" Ie: a flight Eastbound or Westbound that originates and terminates same station and goes around all the "meridians" in the process. As mentioned before both PAA and TWA offered these in the age of the Connies and later with 707.

PA did that for a short time around 1975 -- never before that. TWA might have done it for a few months in 1969 -- never before that, and never after.

777222LR wrote:

United use to do it.

UA-1went SFO-HKG LHR-SFO. That flight cased SQ to get rid of their A-340's in favor of the B777's It Pissed Airbus off so bad they said they wouldn't support the A340's SQ had traded in to Boeing for their B777's,, It's in the history somewhere that UA-1 took off from HKG 1 hr behind the SQ A-340, did and enroute Climb Over the same A340 and Landed in London an hour ahead of him. The businessman who missed his SQ flight supposedly called back to Hong Kong and reported that SQ must have Crashed as he was there and they weren't, By the time he had everybody all Riled up? The SQ340 landed and was taxiing to the gate I guess SQ was so hacked off? They got rid of their A340's and bought B777's

The 2001 version if UA 1 (the only version where the 747-400 went thru) was LAX-HKG-DEL-LHR-IAD-LAX.