Ten airlines use the Airbus A380
: All Nippon, Asiana, British Airways, Emirates, Etihad, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Qantas, Qatar Airways, and Singapore Airlines. When their networks are examined using Cirium data, their average stage length is 3,630 nautical miles (6,723 km). That is 12% less than all long-haul flights on all equipment.
Related
Qantas Confirms Superjumbo Airbus A380 Return To Dallas/Fort Worth In 2025
It comes after a five-year-plus absence.
The new five longest A380 flights
Qantas
will resume using the double-decker quadjet between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth in August 2025. This development means that the world’s five longest routes list will change, as summarized below. I have combined non-stop and one-stop services, which is perhaps unfair but more insightful. If you don’t like it, just focus on what you do.
Photo: Qantas
As always, the Great Circle is used to measure distance. The results may vary in other months or if block time was used instead. Changes may occur.
|
Nautical miles (km) |
Route: August 2025 |
Airline (A380 flights) |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
|
9,274 (17,175) |
Sydney-Singapore-London Heathrow |
Qantas |
The A380 was first flown on this very long route in January 2009. Due to Qantas’ partnership with Emirates, it switched to operating via Dubai in March 2013, which covered 2% more distance, before returning to Singapore five years later. I have good memories of being in Costa Coffee in Dubai and overhearing Qantas A380 pilots talking. One group was going to the UK, the other back to Australia |
|
7,668 (14,201) |
Dubai-Auckland |
|
The world’s longest non-stop A380 flight. It first saw the type in March 2009 but stopped in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane at different times). The first non-stop services appeared in late 2016 and coexisted with one-stop options. In 2016, Emirates had four daily A380 services to Auckland, although triple daily was more common. A380 services became fully non-stop in April 2018 |
|
7,650 (14,168) |
Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch |
Emirates (daily) |
It first saw the equipment in October 2016. Given the pandemic, the A380 returned to Christchurch in March 2023 |
|
7,454 (13,805) |
Sydney-Dallas/Fort Worth |
Qantas (four times weekly) |
The A380 will resume on August 11. It will become the world’s second-longest non-stop superjumbo service. The route first saw the type in September 2014, when it replaced the 747-400. On many occasions, the A380 operated daily, lower than what is coming in 2025. Search for tickets here! |
|
7,246 (13,420) |
Dubai-Los Angeles |
Emirates (daily) |
The route first saw the double-decker nearly 11 years ago, in December 2013. There was a twice-daily operation on the type for a few months in 2016/2017 |
Emirates
Related
Two More Cities To Get Emirates’ 615-Seat Airbus A380s
Emirates’ A380 configurations vary from ‘just’ 484 in the airline’s relatively new and lowest-capacity four-class layout to 615 in its two-class config. The latter has 557 seats in the bog-standard economy. That’s more than Emirates’ total seats in all six other layouts and all other airlines’ total A380 capacity.
A week ago, Emirates disclosed that it would fly the double-decker quadjet to Prague again. Czechia’s capital saw its A380s between May 2016 and March 2020, with the 615-seater to operate daily from December 1. It’ll replace the 360-seat 777-300ER, providing a whopping 71% more seats/flight, which seems like an unbelievably large increase in winter! It’ll help it to compete against Etihad, which begins Prague in June.
On October 8, it was revealed that Copenhagen would again have A380 flights, having last had them in (no surprise!) March 2020. They’ll begin on January 1, operate daily, and be on the 615-seater. The type will replace Emirates’ non-first-class, 428-seat 777-3
Other very long A380 services existed…
Analyzing every A380 route since the first revenue-generating passenger flight took off 17 years ago, in October 2017, shows multiple other very long flights. While no longer operated by the type, they include the following:
- Up to 9,256 nautical miles (17,142 km): Qantas from Melbourne to London Heathrow via Singapore from January 2010 to March 2013 before switching to the slightly longer routing via Dubai. It stopped in March 2018, after which the 787-9 was flown via Perth and, briefly during the pandemic, Darwin. Melbourne no longer has a same-plane, same-flight-number London operation
- 9,034 nautical miles (16,731 m): Qantas offered a one-off A380 service from Melbourne to New York JFK via Melbourne in December 2016
- 8,903 nautical miles (16,488 km): Singapore Airlines from its city-state to New York JFK via Frankfurt. It flew the A380 from January 2012 until May 2023
- 8,434 nautical miles (15,620 km): roundtrip Qantas charter flight from Sydney to Orlando via Los Angeles for Australians to visit Disney in January 2020. The supermarket chain Woolworths chartered it
- 7,398 nautical miles (13,701 km): Singapore Airlines briefly operated to San Francisco via Hong Kong from December 2012 to March 2023