How long does it take to go around the world

Flying around the world is an amazing experience. Anyone lucky enough to get the chance to do this will probably want to spend as long as possible enjoying the cities and sights along the way. But if you want to fly as quickly as possible, how long would it take? This article takes a look.

Flying around the world

Flying around the world has long been on the list of significant travel achievements. Jules Verne idolized it in "Around the World in 80 Days" in 1872,  using rail and sea connections. Aviation came later, and a team of US military aviators made the first around the world flight in 1924. This took 175 days and covered over 42,000 kilometers. A great achievement, but hardly a quick trip.

A Douglas World Cruiser was used for the first round the world flight. Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia

Flying non-stop

The first way to look at flying around the world would be just to fly it as fast as possible. The first non-stop flight was made in 1986, using the Rutan Model Aircraft 76 Voyage aircraft. It flew the equator route around the world in nine days, three minutes, and 44 seconds.

The current record is held by Virgin Atlantic-backed GlobalFlyer. This single-engine aircraft was flown around the world in 2005 by pilot Steve Fossett. It flew the Tropic of Cancer route around the world in just over 67 hours. It achieved what standard aircraft cannot by taking advantage of winds and flying at very high altitudes, burning military-grade aviation fuel with a lower freezing point than standard jet fuel.

The Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer. Photo: NASA via Wikimedia

Of course, achieving this with a standard commercial aircraft is not yet possible. Qantas has now flown non-stop from Perth to London and is looking at Sydney to London (it flew this with a Boeing 787 in 2019 but not yet commercially).

Until Qantas launches Project Sunrise, the longest commercial flight possible remians Singapore to New York. This is an impressive 15,344 kilometers, and Singapore Airlines operates it with its A350-900ULR in 18 hours 45 minutes. The Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Auckland is a close contender.

Fastest flight around the world - Concorde

If we switch to commercial aircraft and allow stops, we can, of course, get around the world much faster. It won't come as much of a surprise that Concorde holds the record for this (according to Guinness World Records). It completed the fastest circumnavigation (under FAI rules of exceeding the length of the Tropic of Cancer) in 31 hours 27 minutes, and 49 seconds, beating its own record by over an hour.

Concorde's white paint helped prevent it from overheating during supersonic cruises. Photo: Getty Images

This flight took place in August 1995. It was a celebration charter flight, with 80 passengers, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America. The flight began and ended at New York JFK and flew eastbound with stops in Toulouse, Dubai, Bangkok, Guam, Honolulu, and Acapulco.

And fastest over the poles

There is another record for fastest circumnavigation via the two poles. The current record for this was set in July 2019 by a team of pilots and astronauts. The attempt was named 'One More Orbit' and was carried out to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landings. It used a Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER business jet, making refueling stops in Kazakhstan, Mauritius, and Chile.

A Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER. Photo: Anna Zvereva via Wikimedia

It completed a circumnavigation over both poles in 46 hours, 39 minutes and 38 seconds, starting and ending at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Around the world commercially

How about flying around the world quickest using commercially available flights? Routes and schedules change, and with this, the optimal route will as well. In 2018, a new record was set for this by Etihad Airways executive Andrew Fisher. He flew around the world, starting and ending in Shanghai, in 52 hours and 34 minutes.

Fisher spoke about the trip and its planning in an interview with the Australian publication Traveller. He said:

“The planning took a long time. Essentially to ensure the flight timings, routings and transits are kept as tight as possible and there was only a short window of opportunity for this to happen. I was fairly confident, but airline operations are so dependent on external factors and influences that you can never tell. Inbound aircraft delays, technical faults, weather, air traffic control congestion etcetera can all affect on time departures and I didn't have much of a buffer."

This trip beat the previous record by just over three hours. Transit times of two hours in Auckland, just one hour in Buenos Aires, and two and a half hours in Amsterdam were key to this. It will take some beating! Perhaps if London to Sydney flights get going, there will be a better route, but it will still depend on connection times and complex routing rules (see our article on this for more details).

Round the world tickets

Flying around the world does not have to be the stuff of dreams and record-setting. Airlines know that some travelers want the experience and flexibility of multiple flights over a period of time, rather than a standard return flight to one destination. Round the world tickets have been in existence for a long time, and these days are well packaged together by each airline alliance.

Each alliance offers an around the world ticket product, allowing passengers to combine flights from all member airlines to complete a circumnavigation, subject to several routing rules. It is a great example of alliance airlines really working together to offer some great possibilities.

The oneworld alliance offers one of the most popular tickets, known as the oneworld Explorer. This is sold at a fixed price by continent crossed (from three to six) and the class of travel. Up to 16 flights can be used, with no limit on the total distance flown. There is even an online tool to plan and book your route. You probably can't achieve the fastest round the world trip this way, but with so much to see, why would you want to!

The oneworld Explorer can be planned and booked online. Image: oneworld

Would you like to share any thoughts on round-the-world flights? Have you used an alliance round the world ticket before? Let us know in the comments.