LONDON—A British Airways Boeing 747-400 has broken the unofficial record for the fastest subsonic transatlantic flight by flying from New York JFK to London’s Heathrow Airport in less than five hours.
Data from aircraft tracking website Flightradar24 states that Flight BA112 flew between the two cities in just four hrs. 56 min. on Feb. 8 propelled by a well-positioned jet stream and aided by a storm that also ultimately caused widespread disruption at airports across Northern Europe. Flightradar’s own data for the flight states that BA112 usually flies the route in 6 hrs. 13 min.
The service was one of a number of flights originating in the U.S. which benefited from the strong winds. Another British Airways flight, BA212 from Boston to Heathrow, completed the journey in four hrs. 47 min.
“We always prioritize 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,” a British Airways spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
Virgin Atlantic rebutted the record claims on social media noting that its own VS4 flight completed the same sector in four hrs. 57 min., one minute slower than the British Airways flight, but noting that its twin-engine Airbus A350-1000 had completed the flight with 22 tons lower fuel burn.
Flightradar said its records show that a Norwegian Airlines Boeing 787 held the previous record, flying between New York and London’s Gatwick airport in five hrs. 13 min., however a Vickers VC10 operated by British Airways flew JFK to Heathrow in five hrs. 1 min., set in March 1979.
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