Photo: Airbus
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAzores Airlines has beaten its record for the longest Airbus A321LR flight. On Tuesday, the airline flew 7,874km between Oakland, CA, and Lajes, Azores, for nine and a half hours.
In a statement, the airline said, “This achievement puts the airline in the spotlight in Airbus’ records since it exceeds the precedent record of 7600 km of distance traveled between two points. Flight S4 236 will stay in the airline history as having been the longest direct journey ever recorded by Airbus, in this type of aircraft.”
The distance is above the aircraft’s standard range. Passengers, baggage, crew, and cargo on board all add weight and decrease the range of an aircraft. This time, the airline may have planned to break the existing record and kept the aircraft as light as possible.