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The 10 longest (and 10 shortest) American Airlines 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. 22, 2019
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3 min read
20191028_DFW Airport_American Airlines 788 787-8 on DFW runway in front of maintenance base_JTGenter
The 10 longest (and 10 shortest) American Airlines 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 days 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 American Airlines. Its longest route on the December schedule is Dallas/Fort Worth-Hong Kong while its shortest is the 55-mile hop it operates between Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley International Airport near Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Next: Delta Air Lines. Previous: Alaska Airlines | Allegiant Air

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Longest

  1. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Hong Kong (HKG): 8,111 miles
  2. Los Angeles (LAX) - Sydney, Australia (SYD) 7,487 miles
  3. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Shanghai (PVG): 7,351 miles
  4. Hong Kong (HKG) - Los Angeles (LAX): 7,260 miles
  5. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Beijing (PEK): 6,971 miles
  6. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Seoul (ICN): 6,826 miles
  7. Los Angeles (LAX) - Auckland (AKL): 6,504 miles
  8. Los Angeles (LAX) - Shanghai (PVG): 6,485 miles
  9. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Tokyo (NRT): 6,427 miles
  10. Los Angeles (LAX) - Beijing (PEK): 6,251 miles

Shortest

  1. Philadelphia (PHL) - Allentown, Pennsylvania (ABE): 55 miles
  2. Chicago O'Hare (ORD) - Milwaukee (MKE): 67 miles
  3. Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina (GSP) - Charlotte (CLT): 76 miles
  4. Greensboro, North Carolina (GSO) - Charlotte (CLT): 82 miles
  5. Philadelphia (PHL) - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (MDT): 83 miles
  6. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) - Waco, Texas (ACT): 89 miles
  7. Charlotte (CLT) - Columbia, South Carolina (CAE): 89 miles
  8. Philadelphia (PHL) - Baltimore (BWI): 90 miles
  9. Charlotte (CLT) - Asheville, North Carolina (AVL): 92 miles
  10. Philadelphia (PHL) - New York (JFK): 94 miles

Source: American Airlines. 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 American Airlines by the numbers post.

Featured image by (Photo by JT Genter/The Points Guy)