There are Americans in shorts, Asian with young children, but they are mainly young people who constitute the bulk of the 123 passengers who embarked Tuesday, October 23, on board the flight, Singapore Airlines, 022, to reach directly to New York from Singapore. A little more than ten days after its launch on Tuesday, October 10, the company has confirmed its new record for the longest commercial flight in the world : 16 700 kilometers and 18 hours and 45 minutes non-stop. The previous one belonged to Qatar Airways, which joined a single draft Auckland (New Zealand) from Doha in 17 hours and 40 minutes.
Officially, “this is not for the prestige,” knowledge Mak Swee Wah, executive vice-president in charge of commercial relations of Singapore Airlines, the company has opened this new route. Believing him, it is only because ” the customers liked it, because it is a very good product “. A half-truth. It seems that the company of the city-State has had a hard time digesting being supplanted by his rival of the Gulf.
Between 2004 and 2013, she has reigned without sharing it with its direct Singapore-New York operated with Airbus A340 aircraft. But the economic crisis of 2009 and the rise in oil prices have forced the company to make the weapons.
Not economic class, as a precaution
“We had to stop because it was no longer profitable,” says Mr Mak. The sustainability of this new destination will have to confirm on the duration. The confession even of the vice-president of the company, the opening of this new line was planned two years ago, while the price of oil was at its lowest “, around $ 50 a barrel. A bygone era. In the past few months, crude prices are rising again. In one year, from 2017, they have increased by 40 % and the barrel flirting with $ 80.
It is one of the reasons why, before resuming its links…
