MilesBuzz! - JFK-TPE longer than ORD-HKG ?

In a previous thread here on FlyerTalk it was said that the world's longest commercial flight is the UA ORD-HKG route. In another thread (http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/000088.html) it was said that China Airlines fly the JFK-TPE route non-stop during winter season. According to the distance calculator at http://www.chicago.com/airliners/gc.html, the JFK-TPE route is longer (7811 mi) than ORD-HKG (7797). Am I missing something, or can China Airlines claim to have the longest flight during that time of year?

Later,
M.

What about JFK-JNB with South African Airlines: 7963 miles. This flight however is only non-stop from JFK. The flight from JNB makes one stop.

As I recall, UA's ORD-HKG only claimed to be the longest "regularly scheduled nonstop flight out of the United states." I believe that given the above information, this claim (albeit conditional) stands. It has been acknowledged that there are longer seasonal, charter and non-U.S. originating flights...

Just my recollection...

If you do a search on Dejanews of this ( http://www.deja.com ) there have been several discussions about this.

Basically it depends on how you define longest flight. Longest flight in miles or time and whether you count round-trip/one-way and year-round/seasonal.

I forget which ones are which, but I believe that JNB-JFK (which stops in Cape Verde sometimes, the only regularly scheduled US/Cape Verde service as one of my best friends who worked in Cape Verde told me) is the longest regularly scheduled flight, but is not year-round round-trip. I think the ORD-HKG flight is the longest year-round round-trip flight.

Like I said, check Dejanews, there have been extensive discussions on this there (I'm in the ATL CRC and don't have the time or a robust internet connection to do it right now unfortunately).

From what we were told when boarding last year, the SAA flight from JFK to Johannesburg is the world's longest, in terms of miles. It is a nonstop 6 days a week -- 1 day a week they make the stop in Cape Verde to provide a limited number of seats to people traveling to/from these islands. The return trip from Johannesburg is not a non-stop, due to strong headwinds.