These passengers would have barely had time to watch “The Irishman.”
A British Airways flight from JFK Airport has broken the all-time record for a subsonic jet trip between New York and London, as it made the journey in a lightning-fast four hours and 56 minutes.
Thanks to a powerful tail wind, the Boeing 747 shaved 102 minutes off its scheduled 4:43 a.m. arrival time at London’s Heathrow Airport, according to Flightradar24, which tracks global air traffic.
The flight, BA 112, easily eclipsed the previous subsonic speed record of five hours and 13 minutes, set in January 2018 by a Norwegian Air 787 Dreamliner, which landed at London’s Gatwick Airport.
It also marked the first time a commercial passenger plane has crossed the Atlantic Ocean in less than five hours since the supersonic Concorde stopped flying in 2003.
Although Flightrader24 clocked BA 112 at a top speed of 825 mph, it never went supersonic because it was being pushed by tailwinds that also increased the relative speed of sound, CNN reported.
The British Airways plane narrowly beat out two other flights that were nearly as quick on Sunday.
A Virgin Airways flight that touched down at Heathrow at the same time took just one minute longer, and another Virgin plane was just three minutes slower than BA 112.
Flightrader24 spokesman Ian Petchenik credited weather conditions for the quick trips, which were all far faster than the recent average flight time of six hours and 13 minutes.
“In the winter, the jet stream dips down a bit,” he said. “It’s kind of in a perfect spot for flights across the North Atlantic.”
In a statement, British Airways confirmed its achievement.
“We always prioritise safety over speed records, but our highly trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time,” the company said.
Virgin, meanwhile, was a bit of a sore loser.
“It’s true that we were narrowly beaten by a BA Boeing 747, however they had twice the amount of engines and burnt twice as much fuel as Captain Chris in our brand new, fuel efficient Airbus A350-1000,” the company tweeted, along with a smiling emoji in sunglasses.
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British Airways JFK to London passenger flight breaks fast-trip record - New York Post
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