Opinion

The trouble with long flights

October 14, 2018

The world’s longest non-stop commercial flight has ended successfully - from Singapore to New York, 15,000 kilometers in 17 hours and 52 minutes.

What is forgotten is that there are other planes perfectly capable of flying such long distances. Qantas, for example, launched a 17-hour non-stop service from Perth to London earlier this year.

Such long-haul flights go beyond the typical flight patterns of take off, eat, watch a movie, rest and land. A 17-hour flight is a length of time difficult for many individuals. Parents with infants, passengers with disabilities and who are not at their peak of health face challenges to their comfort and safety on ultra-long-haul flights.

For routes to be viable, they require people to buy tickets. That depends on passengers being willing to sit in their seats for 16, 17 or maybe 18 hours at a time. How long that desire will last, especially for travelers cramped in economy, is something airlines will monitor carefully.

Non-stop flights help cut traveling times compared with flights that have a stopover but the Singapore Airlines route was obviously for the well-heeled traveler. There were business class and premium economy tickets, but no economy bookings, and no plans for them. So, no beds and less meals for the less well to do.

Sitting still in a cramped seat for hours is not just unpleasant; it can lead to deep vein thrombosis, when blood clots form in the legs because of poor blood flow. The longer you do not move, the greater your risk. In the worst-case scenario, the clot can break free and lodge in the lungs, heart or brain. The risk is cut down by getting up and walking around or flexing your legs but the longer the flight, the more a passenger will need to walk or at least do small leg stretches on an hourly basis. Passengers are strongly advised to stay hydrated with plenty of fluids, preferably water, as the aircraft air tends to be much drier than what we are accustomed to on the ground.

A plane’s most profound influence is not just on passengers; it turns out that airplanes in the sky can cause problems down below. The main health impact is probably emissions from aircraft and the health impact on people on the ground. It is estimated that 16,000 people globally die each year because of air pollution caused by planes. Naturally, these emissions, which are linked to lung cancer and cardiopulmonary disease, increase the longer a plane is in the air.

As important as the health of passengers is the health of the crew. It is reported that staff operating these long direct flights have an average duty period of 19 hours, and an average rest period of 25 hours in a hotel before hopping on board a flight back home. This could be insufficient and conducive to fatigue. Crews must be provided with adequate rest time. This simply cannot be compromised in the pursuit of profit.

The biggest challenge for airlines is to make these routes profitable. Like any business, the economics come down to balancing costs against revenue. For an airline, this means comparing how expensive it is to operate a particular aircraft in terms of fuel costs to the demand for specific routes. Fuel takes a greater proportion of the total cost as a flight’s length increases. The longer the flight the more fuel it needs to carry.

Flying for 20 hours non-stop is the future of long-haul travel for business and pleasure. For the vast majority of people, even the longest flights will pass uneventfully. The flying public on major airlines is very safe. There’s no specific amount of time that is unsafe but the longer a flight is, the more time there is for problems.


October 14, 2018
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