Firstly, many thanks to all the Bangalore Aviation readers who participated in last week's trivia question - Which is the longest scheduled commercial airline flight ?

For the purpose of definition I placed four criteria for an ultra long-haul non-stop flight:

1. Operated by a commercial airliner with a definite schedule
2. No intermediate stop-over point within its scheduled duration
3. More than 12,000 km in route length
4. Over 15 hours of scheduled flying time

The correct answer is Singapore Airline's flight SQ21 from Newark to Singapore, 16,600km (10,314 miles, 8,963 nm), 18 hours 40 minutes scheduled flying time. Congratulations to Dominik from Poland for the right answer.

Incidentally Singapore Airline's SQ22 from Singapore to Newark follows a "great circle" route of 15,700 km, while SQ21 follows a "polar" route which is 16,600 km.

The second longest route is also by Singapore Airlines. SQ37 (formerly SQ19) from Los Angeles to Singapore takes 18 hours 10 minutes to complete the 14,033 km (8,771 mile, 7,577 nm) trip.

Both these flights are operated by the Airbus A340-500.

Delta operates India's longest flight, the world's fourth longest from Mumbai to Atlanta using the Boeing 777LR. DL185 takes 17 hours to cover the 13,739 km (8,537 mile, 7,395nm) journey. This is also the longest currently scheduled flight by the Boeing 777LR. For a full list click here.

On 10 December 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR completed the world's longest non-stop passenger flight, travelling eastwards from Hong Kong to London a 21,602 km (13,422 miles) in roughly 22 hours and 40 minutes. This was not a scheduled flight and although the airplane seats 301, there were only 27 passengers aboard this flight, I guess the balance weight being made up by fuel.

This is not, however, the record for longest time staying aloft for an airliner. This record is held by the 1939 Berlin-New York non stop flight of a reciprocal piston powered Focke-Wulf Fw 200 built for Lufthansa (flight time 24 hours and 56 minutes). Now that would be a very painful flight.

Image courtesy Singapore Airlines

An Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-500, registration A6-ERG performing flight EK407 from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with 225 people on board, damaged and decommissioned the main runway at Melbourne airport while taking-off.

The aircraft ran off the runway 16 (length 3657 meters / 12,000 feet) around 22:30 local (12:30GMT) March 20, during its take-off run, struck its tail on the runway, and hit the runway end lights and the localizer antenna past the end of the runway 16.

The airplane climbed out safely, and tried to dump fuel over the ocean at Port Philip Bay but was forced to return to Melbourne for an immediate emergency landing when smoke started to fill the cabin.

The airplane was fully fuelled for the long non-stop flight to Dubai, and the heavily loaded aircraft landed hard on Melbourne's runway 34. She was able to taxi to the apron after being inspected by airport's emergency services.

Severe abrasions occurred to the tail skin and several access panels have been ripped off during the tail strike at take-off. The hard landing, un-avoidable due to the full fuel weight, has reportedly caused damage to the landing gear.

Melbourne airport authorities have confirmed that ILS runway 16 will need repairs and will not be available until Monday, March 23rd.

For full technical details of the accident including NOTAMs and METARs please visit Aviation Herald. Hat tip to Simon Hradecky who runs a great site keeping track of all the aviation incidents around the world.

This photograph by Digital Airliners taken just two days ago at Toulouse shows two Airbus A340-500's.

One is still painted in Kingfisher Airlines' colours. Kingfisher had ordered five A340-500s, but defaulted on taking delivery last year. Three were diverted to Nigeria's Arik Air, but it appears the balance two have become the dreaded white tail for Airbus, i.e. a jet built but now the ordering airline is not taking delivery, and therefore the plane has no place to go.

Just two weeks ago, Kingfisher diverted 4 A321s to Turkish Airlines after its financial problems forced it to again default on delivery from Airbus.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration today issued a final airworthiness directive (AD) instructing operators of most Airbus A330 and A340 models to power down suspect air data inertial reference units (ADIRU) using one specific rotary dial on the panel.

The mandate follows EASA Emergency AD 2008-0225-E of December 18, 2008, which superseded EASA Emergency AD 2008-0203-E of November 19, 2008, issued after a Qantas Airways A330-300 pitched down unexpectedly while in cruise at flight level 370, seriously injuring 14 of the 303 passengers.

The Airbus A340 is also affected due to its cockpit similarity to the A330.

Read the directive here.

According to Business Traveller magazine, Nigerian carrier Arik Air will launch its flights from London to Lagos on December 15, using the Airbus A340-500 aircraft with their plush interiors and seating designed for Kingfisher Airlines.

Arik recently took delivery of its first of three A340-500 aircraft, planes originally destined for Kingfisher Airlines before it was forced to shelve the order.

A look at the pictures on Arik’s website shows that the carrier will be using the same fully-flat seating product originally intended for Kingfisher, as well as the communal bar for premium passengers. It is known that the A340-500's were to be Kingfisher's flagship flights. Dr. Vijay Mallya and his team, reportedly spent massive time and effort designing the interiors. The benefit will be reaped by Arik. Without doubt, it's a coup for Arik, in it's head-to-head battle with British Airways and Virgin Nigeria on the route.

There will be 201 economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout, and 36 Premier seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. The Kingfisher product, came with a full basket of goodies; fully-flat beds with vibrating massage functions and lumbar support, touchscreen controls on the armrest, an in-flight entertainment system with 17-inch (43cm) screen and remote in the side of the seat, mirrored privacy screen, in-seat power and USB connectors, personal reading light, and mood lighting.

Kingfisher also featured a communal bar area with white leather sofas on each side and a bar in the middle with three stools.

As a admirer and supporter of Kingfisher Airlines, I really feel for the team. Cheer up gang, the economy will recover.

Kingfisher (Arik Air) A340-500 seating plan. Image (c) Business Traveller.

The plan was link the two "Silicon" hubs - Bangalore and San Francisco on this


Faced with huge losses, and a diving economy, Kingfisher Airlines was forced to shelve its plans to procure the ultra long range Airbus A340-500. These aircraft were instead diverted to Nigerian carrier Arik Air.


As per an Airbus press release

Arik Air, based in Lagos, Nigeria, took delivery of its first A340-500 on December 1, 2008, at a ceremony at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France. The ceremony was conducted by John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer Customers, and Arik Air Chairman Sir J.I.A Arumemi-Johnson in the presence of senior government officials from various African states, board members and key business partners of the airline, and other VIP guests.

The new aircraft is the first of three A340-500s ordered by Arik Air for use on international long-haul routes to London, New York and Houston. Powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines, the carrier's new A340s will offer the best possible passenger comfort in a two-class configuration.

Clearly, Arik saw a good thing in the tremendous effort put in by Dr. Mallya and the team at Kingfisher, in designing the interior of their A340-500, and plans to use the same aircraft configuration, for long-haul services to London, New York and Houston.

Bangalore's loss is Lagos' gain.