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The 10 longest (and 10 shortest) Southwest 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. 27, 2019
•
3 min read
LAX Airport Operations
The 10 longest (and 10 shortest) Southwest 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 Southwest Airlines. Its longest route on the December schedule is Sacramento-Honolulu while its shortest is the 101-mile inter-island flight it operates between Kahului and Honolulu in Hawaii.

Next: Spirit Airlines. Previous: Alaska Airlines | Allegiant Air | American Airlines | Delta Air Lines | Frontier Airlines | Hawaiian Airlines | JetBlue

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Longest

  1. Sacramento (SMF) - Honolulu (HNL): 2,462 miles
  2. Baltimore (BWI) - Oakland (OAK): 2,446 miles
  3. Baltimore (BWI) - San Jose, California (SJC): 2,439 miles
  4. Orlando (MCO) - Oakland (OAK): 2,438 miles
  5. Orlando (MCO) - San Jose, California (SJC): 2,421 miles
  6. San Jose (SJC) - Honolulu (HNL): 2,417 miles
  7. Oakland (OAK) - Honolulu (HNL): 2,409 miles
  8. Orlando (MCO) - Sacramento (SMF): 2,408 miles
  9. Baltimore (BWI) - Sacramento (SMF): 2,395 miles
  10. San Jose, California (SJC) - Kahului, Hawaii (OGG): 2,355 miles

Shortest

  1. Kahului, Hawaii (OGG) - Honolulu (HNL): 101 miles
  2. Lihue, Hawaii (LIH) - Honolulu (HNL): 102 miles
  3. Grand Rapids, Michigan (GRR) - Chicago (MDW): 137 miles
  4. Houston Hobby (HOU) - Austin (AUS): 148 miles
  5. Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina (GSP) - Atlanta (ATL): 153 miles
  6. Baltimore (BWI) - Norfolk, Virginia (ORF): 159 miles
  7. Chicago (MDW) - Indianapolis (IND): 162 miles
  8. Kona, Hawaii (KOA) - Honolulu (HNL): 163 miles
  9. Orlando (MCO) - Fort Lauderdale (FLL): 177 miles
  10. Reno (RNO) - Oakland (OAK): 181 miles

Source: Southwest 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 Southwest Airlines by the numbers post.

Featured image by Patrick T. Fallon