TAP Air Portugal Operates Epic 10 Hour Long Airbus A321LR Flight
The A321LR is an incredibly capable aircraft, and on Monday, one airline demonstrated just how versatile it can be. While most A321LR operators stick to short and medium-haul routes with the aircraft, TAP Portugal took it on an impressive 10 hour trip across Africa and beyond.
The trend for using smaller aircraft to fly further is being aptly illustrated by a few epic narrowbody flights of late. One particular journey, which took place this Monday, was one of the longest we’ve seen to date, covering an incredible 4,703 miles by Great Circle distance, and flying for more than 10 hours in total.
The flight was operated by CS-TXA, an Airbus A321LR flown by Portuguese carrier TAP. It took off from Maputo (MPM), the capital of East Africa’s Mozambique, at just before 11:00 local time on Monday, March 29th. Although the flight was scheduled to go to Luanda, just under four hours to the northwest, the flight continued on to another destination entirely.
Rather than stopping in Luanda, the aircraft continued to head northwest for another six long hours. It finally arrived in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, off the western coast of Africa, ten hours and eight minutes after leaving Mozambique. Although the Great Circle distance is calculated as just over 4,700 miles, it’s likely to have traveled a bit further due to routing away from South African airspace.
The aircraft had previously flown from its home in Lisbon to Praia, then to Luanda, and finally Maputo. TAP told Simple Flying,
Flight TP9302 of 29 March, operated by the Airbus A321LR CS-TXA, took it 10:07 hours, becoming the longest flight ever recorded in the Airbus A321LR fleet. The flight took off from Maputo, Mozambique, at 08:59 am, and landed in Cidade da Praia, Cape Verde, at 7:06 pm. This was a positioning flight that covered around 7200km (4500 miles).
