Narrowbody aircraft are normally kept relegated on short to medium haul flights, ranging anywhere in times from 30 minutes up to about 6 hours. But some airlines push the limits of these aircraft and fly them long haul to their maximum capable range. Today we will take a look into some of those flights, and compare just how far airlines are willing to fly narrowbodies in 2024. 

What Is Long Haul?

A long haul flight is defined as a flight covering 2,600 nautical miles or more, which typically equates to about a minimum duration of 7 hours inflight. Surprisingly, the ratio of narrowbody to widebody on long-haul flights is a bit higher than one might believe, with one in fifteen long hauls being on narrowbody equipment.  

Also, the criteria for this classification is restricted to nonstop flights only, and any flights that require a fuel stop enroute are also excluded. While not used as the official calculator for flight classification, block time is also an important factor when looking at these flights, as it is the expected time from gate to gate for a given trip and represents the full duration of a given flight. 

The Top 10 Longest Narrowbody Flights in 2024

La Compagnie currently holds the distinguished title of running the longest narrowbody flight in 2024, with its Milan, Italy to Newark, NJ service at 3,485 nautical miles on the A321LR. This flight blocks in at 9 hours and 20 minutes long, along with a three nautical mile shorter Nice to Newark flight, also operated by La Compagnie.

It's absolutely incredible to see such a long flight operated by an airplane that, in its first iteration, was only capable of doing just beyond half the full distance of this flight. And soon, when the A321XLR comes into play, I would not be surprised if flights begin exceeding 10 hours of block time.

SAS holds the next three slots on the list, with Copenhagen to JFK, Stockholm to Toronto and Copenhagen to Toronto coming in at 9 hours, 8 hours and 45 minutes, and 8 hours and 40 mins respectively. Boeing finally enters the game in the next 3 positions with United on their Chicago to Dublin, Newark to Malaga and Newark to Stockholm services. All three routes are blocked in at 8 hours and 40 minutes, and all routes are operated on the Boeing 757-200. 

Rounding out the list with our last 2 flights, Air Transat comes in at 9th with a Montreal to Nice service on the A321LR. It takes the 3,318 nautical mile flight a block time of 8 hours and 35 minutes to complete. Finally, GOL takes the last spot with its Boeing 737 MAX 8 service from Basilia to Orlando, blocking in at 8 hours and 30 minutes for the 3,283 nautical mile flight. 

Summary 

Overall, narrowbody flying has evolved from being rarely seen on flights over 6 hours, to a much more common sight on the shorter end of long-haul flying, maximizing the range of the newest generation of these aircraft.

In addition, it's important to note that 9 out of the 10 routes on this list are all transatlantic services. It shows just how important these narrowbody long-haul flights have become, and it allows airlines to operate thinner routes on smaller aircraft, where a widebody would simply be too much airplane.

And with increased reliance on narrowbodies for thinner transatlantic flights, and the current ones being up to nearly nine and half hours, I can only see this number increasing when even longer range variants of narrowbodies enter service, such as the A321XLR. Until then, the 10 hour mark is yet to be reached on a single, nonstop narrowbody flight.