Bested Previous Record By About 200 Statute Miles

Delta last week broke a company distance and time en route record after ship 3351, an Airbus A330-200, flew nonstop 10,757 statute miles from Singapore’s Changi International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 18 hours and 34 minutes. The flight eclipsed the previous A330-200 record for distance by approximately 200 statute miles.

Ship 3351 made the record-breaking non-stop journey after receiving extensive cabin modifications adding Delta’s full flat-bed seats in the BusinessElite cabin, new slim-line seats in Economy Comfort and economy class and crew rest facilities, among other cabin enhancements. The flight was operating under a ferry permit issued by the Federal Aviation Administration and did not have passengers or cargo on board.

“This flight demonstrates the remarkable endurance and capabilities of this aircraft and it’s one of the many reasons I love flying it,” said Capt. Robert “Bob” Kitto, a Detroit-based A330 captain and the pilot in command for the first leg of the journey. “A trip like this takes a significant amount of coordination by several divisions across the airline, including Flight Operations, Dispatch and Delta TechOps, and it’s an awesome accomplishment for Delta to have done this.”

DL9971 departed SIN after noon on Sunday, May 26, carrying just under a quarter million pounds of fuel to make the trans-Pacific journey. The aircraft flew northeast toward Tokyo before making the ocean crossing at 37,000 feet and entered U.S. airspace north of San Francisco. It touched down in ATL at 6:38 p.m. local time the same day. The ultra long-haul trip topped a previous A330- 200 distance record set by Qantas Airways in 2003 when the Australian carrier flew a delivery flight from the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France to Melbourne. That aircraft flew under 17,000 km in just over 20 hours.

( Photo below: Ship 3351 touches down in Atlanta last Sunday after its 10,757 mile, 18 hour 34 minute journey halfway around the world. Joining Capt. Kitto in the cockpit were fellow line check pilots Griff Eisel, Curt Shoemake and Joe Gilroy who were all completing functional check flight training.)

FMI: www.delta.com