Record 9,849-mile flight from Scotland to Australia takes off to deliver 'critical' aircraft part
Near 20 hour journey to Melbourne to come to aid of grounded plane
A cargo plane taking an urgent aircraft part to Australia has completed what is believed to be the longest non-stop flight from Scotland.
The National Airlines Boeing 777 freighter took nearly 20 hours to fly 9,849 miles between Prestwick and Melbourne with a “critical aerospace component” for a grounded aircraft.
The 19 hour 23 minute flight took off at 12.50am on Tuesday August 4 and landed at 5.14am (local time) the following day.
A spokesperson for the South Ayrshire airport said: “The current longest non-stop flight available from Scotland is Edinburgh to Beijing, followed by Glasgow to Cancun. We can’t find reference to a longer flight having taken place.”
The flight follows the airport expanding its long-haul cargo operations including on routes to China.
Chief executive Jules Matteoni said: “Glasgow Prestwick combines unrestricted operations with experienced in-house teams and direct access to an established aerospace cluster, allowing us to support complex, and time critical missions at short notice.
“Congratulations to our valued partners at National Airlines on this impressive achievement.
“We believe this flight is also the longest commercial cargo flight operated by B777 freighter anywhere in the world.
“We are proud to have played our part and stand ready to support urgent charter requirements whenever speed and flexibility are required.”
Florida-based National Airlines’ chief growth officer Alan White said: “More than record setting, this historic mission further demonstrates the airline's ability to deliver mission-critical cargo anywhere in the world, combining speed, operational excellence, and global reach.
“Our flight operations, maintenance, dispatch, and ground teams are equipped to position freighter fleet within hours of a such customer enquiry and execute unique, time-critical missions with exceptional precision.
“We also extend our sincere thanks to the Prestwick team for their operational flexibility and specialist support in facilitating the movement of the ‘aircraft on ground’ components and ensuring the mission was completed on schedule.”
David Giles, director of operations, Golden Aviation, which arranged the flight, said: “This was essentially a ‘go-now’ B777F, something that can only be pulled off with all stakeholders coming together to arrange the landing, handling, parking, processing, loading, refuelling and slots.
“The team at Prestwick delivered a flawless operation from start to finish, ensuring the aircraft was handled efficiently and departed exactly as scheduled.
“They were a safe pair of hands throughout, and this time-critical charter simply would not have been possible without their professionalism, responsiveness and willingness to move quickly across every aspect of the ground handling operation.”
Prestwick said it had the longest commercial runway north of Manchester, which could handle the Antonov AN-124, the world’s heaviest cargo aircraft.
The airport was bought by the Scottish Government in 2013 for a nominal £1 from its New Zealand owners Infratil to stave off closure and protect hundreds of jobs.
The site north of Ayr focuses is on cargo flights with its sole passenger airline Ryanair also operating a major maintenance base there.
A third hangar was announced in March that will increase the workforce by 450 to more than 1,200.
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