Austrian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER at Vienna International Airport (VIE/LOWW)
Taken by Ricardo Mungarro Fernandez
On the 29th of March 2020, Austrian Airlines flight OS1457 set out from Vienna to Sydney International Airport on a repatriation flight to collect stranded Austrian citizens. Since Austria closed off its borders due to the coronavirus outbreak, long haul flights to the likes of Mexico and countries in Asia have been ceased.
However, this repatriation flight was the longest flight in the airline's history. The 16,000 km flight took approx. 16 hours and 55 minutes beating the longest scheduled flight in the world. That is Singapore Airlines' flight from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey which is approx. 15,330 km.
The plane was made sure to be extremely light so that it had enough fuel to perform the whole trip. On March 31st 2020, the Boeing 777-200ER was scheduled to fly back from Sydney to Vienna making a stop in Penang, Malaysia to collect more stranded passengers. It is expected to land in Vienna International Airport at approx. 2:40 CET on the 1st of April.
Many other airlines have carried out similar repatriation flights. Such as Air Tahiti Nui from Paris to Papeete, Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi to Wuhan, China and Nolinor Boeing 737-200 from Toronto to Casablanca, Morocco via Goose Bay, Keflavik and Shannon. These unusual repatriation flights are expected to continue as long as Covid-19 pandemic remains.
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