Which Airlines Will Operate The Longest Flights From London Heathrow In December?

London Heathrow (LHR) is the busiest airport in the UK and Europe, and indeed one of the most highly patronized hubs in the entire world. Handling in the region of 80 million passengers a year, the facility serves a huge variety of airlines and destinations, with some being more far-flung than others. Next month will see an interesting selection of airlines serving routes that exceed 6,000 miles (9,656.1 km).

The key figures

December is set to be a busy month for Heathrow Airport, with current scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, showing that 39,585 flights will serve the hub next month. These will offer a collective total of 8,687,147 seats (averaging around 219 per flight), as well as a whopping 22,108,590,616 available seat miles (ASMs) to facilitate the rush of extra Christmas traffic.

London Heathrow Airport

IATA/ICAO Code

LHR-EGLL

CEO

John Holland-Kaye

In comparison to these hefty figures, the number of flights to and from the airport that are over 6,000 miles long represents a relatively small proportion of the facility’s operations. Indeed, Cirium lists 709 services as falling under this category, or just 1.8% of the total. However, the mean figures for these flights are proportionally higher when it comes to seats and ASMs, as seen in the data below.

British Airways

As the UK’s flag carrier and the airport’s largest operator by just about any metric, it is unsurprising to see British Airways
included in the data for Heathrow’s longest flights this December. The oneworld
founding member’s lengthiest route from its home base next month will serve Santiago de Chile (SCL) with the Boeing
787-9. Clocking in at 7,227 miles long, BA will fly 17 outbound and 18 inbound sectors.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Meanwhile, British Airways’ other route from Heathrow next month that exceeds the 6,000-mile mark will have more coverage, with two trips per day. The sector in question connects the British capital city with Singapore Changi (SIN), situated some 6,764 miles away. Of these two round trips, one will be operated by the Airbus
A380, and the other (which continues to Sydney) by the Boeing 777-300ER.

Qantas

The one-stop route via Singapore to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD), which is located a whopping 10,349 miles from London Heathrow), is also served by Australian flag carrier Qantas on a daily basis. However, as the airline uses its 485-seat Airbus A380s on the so-called ‘Kangaroo Route,’ it offers almost twice as many seats between London and Sydney as British Airways’ Boeing 777-300ERs.

Photo: A Periam Photography | Shutterstock

While non-stop flights from London to Sydney aren’t a possibility just yet, Qantas does offer a non-stop connection from Heathrow to another Australian destination, namely Perth (PER). Served daily with the Boeing 787-9 ‘Dreamliner,’ this 8,988-mile hop is Heathrow’s longest current non-stop flight. The outbound block time is 16 hours and 30 minutes, and 17 hours and 50 minutes coming back.

Singapore Airlines

While British Airways and Qantas are partners in the oneworld alliance, they also face competition from the Star Alliance
on the route from London Heathrow Airport to Singapore Changi. This comes in the form of hometown carrier Singapore Airlines, which, according to Airbus, was the first carrier to fly the A380 to the UK’s busiest air hub. This occurred more than 16 years ago, back in March 2008.

Photo: Lukas Wunderlich | Shutterstock

Singapore Airlines still operates the Airbus A380 on this route to this day, and, with two daily rotations with the type, has as much A380 coverage between Heathrow and Changi as BA and Qantas combined. Capacity-wise, Singapore Airlines’ 471-seat A380s sit above those of BA (469) and below Qantas (485).

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

As if this considerable coverage wasn’t enough, Singapore Airlines also supplements its capacity with further flights operated by the 777-300ER. These won’t be quite as frequent next month, with ‘only’ 59 flights each way compared to the A380’s 62 (thanks to a reduced schedule between December 24th and 26th). Nonetheless, this considerable capacity underlines the importance of Heathrow to the airline.

Malaysia Airlines

Interestingly enough, the three remaining carriers to be covered operate the three shortest routes in terms of those to and from Heathrow that will exceed 6,000 miles next month. First in line is Malaysia Airlines, which offers a non-stop 6,593-mile connection to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL).

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

The carrier’s aircraft of choice on this high-value corridor is the suitably prestigious A350-900, which it will use to operate two return flights a day between Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur this December. Cirium shows that Malaysia Airlines uses a 286-seat layout for the A350 on this route, which, per current fleet data from aeroLOPA, comprises four Business Suites, 35 business class flatbeds, and 247 economy seats.

Vietnam Airlines

Next on our list is Vietnam Airlines, which will operate 13 flights in each direction between Heathrow and Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) in Ho Chi Minh City this December. These services will use 274-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on the 6,356-mile route, with this particular configuration consisting of 28 seats in business class, 35 in premium economy, and 211 in economy class.

China Airlines

Last but not least is China Airlines’ 6,090-mile route from London Heathrow to Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) in Taiwan. The SkyTeam
alliance member and Taiwanese flag carrier is set to serve this corridor 17 times in each direction this December, using Airbus A350-900s with 306 seats onboard.