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The 10 longest (and 10 shortest) Delta Air Lines flights

Zach Wichter
Zach Wichter
Aviation Industry Reporter
Zach has been interested in things that go since he was a kid. He previously worked at The New York Times and spent much of his time there covering the aviation industry, including contributing to the paper’s reporting on the 737 Max crisis at Boeing. He grew up in Bethpage, on Long Island, and graduated from Northwestern University in 2013 where he majored in journalism and gender and sexuality studies.
Dec. 23, 2019
•
3 min read
Delta 767-J Business LAX-JFK
The 10 longest (and 10 shortest) Delta Air Lines flights
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Singapore Airlines made global headlines last year when it relaunched its Newark-Singapore flight. The 9,534-mile flight allowed the carrier to reclaim the title of having the "world's longest flight," bumping Qatar Airways and its 9,032-mile Doha-Auckland, New Zealand, flight out of the top spot.

Another title shift could happen in the coming years if Qantas Airways decides to push ahead with its "Project Sunrise" flights. The Australian carrier made headlines of its own this fall as it tested several ultra-long flights to Sydney – including from New York and from London – to great fanfare. Each would be longer than Singapore's current record-holder, and Qantas says it will decide soon whether to press ahead. If it does, flights could begin in 2023.

But have you ever wondered what the longest flight is on your preferred carrier? Or the shortest? Given all the buzz about long flights recently, we decided to see what clocked in as the longest and shortest flights for each of the 11 biggest U.S. carriers.

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What did we find? Today we look at Delta Air Lines. Its longest route on the December schedule is Atlanta-Johannesburg while its shortest is the 74-mile hop it operates between Detroit and Lansing, Michigan.

Next: Frontier Airlines. Previous: Alaska Airlines | Allegiant Air | American Airlines

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Longest

  1. Atlanta (ATL) - Johannesburg (JNB): 8,433 miles
  2. Mumbai (BOM) - New York (JFK): 7,797 miles
  3. Atlanta (ATL) - Shanghai (PVG): 7,659 miles
  4. Los Angeles (LAX) - Sydney, Australia (SYD): 7,487 miles
  5. Atlanta (ATL) - Seoul (ICN): 7,139
  6. Detroit (DTW) - Shanghai (PVG): 7,137 miles
  7. Atlanta (ATL) - Tokyo (NRT): 6,850 miles
  8. Detroit (DTW) - Beijing (PEK): 6,632 miles
  9. Detroit (DTW) - Seoul (ICN): 6,624 miles
  10. Detroit (DTW) - Nagoya, Japan (NGO): 6,552 miles

Shortest

  1. Detroit (DTW) - Lansing, Michigan (LAN): 74 miles
  2. Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) - Rochester, Minnesota (RST): 76 miles
  3. Atlanta (ATL) - Columbus, Georgia (CSG): 83 miles
  4. Cleveland (CLE) - Detroit (DTW): 95 miles
  5. Detroit (DTW) - Saginaw/Bay City, Michigan (MBS): 98 miles
  6. Atlanta (ATL) - Chattanooga, Tennessee (CHA): 106 miles
  7. Los Angeles (LAX) - San Diego (SAN): 109 miles
  8. Kalamazoo, Michigan (AZO) - Detroit (DTW): 113 miles
  9. Detroit (DTW) - Grand Rapids, Michigan (GRR): 120 miles
  10. Seattle (SEA) - Vancouver, British Columbia (YVR): 127 miles

*Certain regional flights are operated and planned by affiliates independently of Delta's scheduling teams and are not included.

Source: Delta Air Lines. Flights based based on regularly scheduled flights during the carrier's December schedule. Next update: March 2020.

For more info about the airline, check out TPG's Delta Air Lines by the numbers post.