New circumnavigation record set on commercial flights

image courtesy of Arek Socha from | eTurboNews | eTN
image courtesy of Arek Socha from Pixabay

He did not charter special flights or wildly expensive airline tickets to break the world record for fastest flying time around the planet.

Jules Vern may have gone Around the World in Eighty Days, but a traveler has just completed it in 46 hours and 23 minutes, beating the current Guinness World Record for the fastest circumnavigation of the planet by scheduled airline flights.

Umit Sabanci passed through Brisbane overnight as part of his express journey around the globe.

His itinerary for the quickest journey:

Leg 1: Los Angeles to Doha on Qatar Airways QR740

Leg 2: Doha to Brisbane on Qatar Airways QR898

Leg 3: Brisbane to Los Angeles on Qantas QF15

After spending 2 months analyzing hundreds of route and flight options, he chose to travel via Brisbane because it is a highly connected hub with superior reliability, which was crucial for his record attempt.

“I didn’t plan to do Brisbane. But when you start making the route plan, you look at the shortest time to go around the world, and it could have been anywhere – but it appears that Brisbane has really good connection to North America and Asia. And then I looked at the reliability of the flights and departures and delays from this airport, and it ticks all the boxes. It’s my first time in Brisbane, but looking at the flight data, it’s a good hub, reliable.”

The current record of 50 hours for the fastest circumnavigation of the world dates back to 1980.

Umit thought with new aircraft and updated flight schedules, he stood a good chance of beating it, if all flights were on time.

Mr. Sabanci is a managing director for an international consulting firm. He lives in London and was born in Turkey.

For the purposes of a record, there are strict rules that must be followed:

– A “scheduled flight” is defined as one aboard an aircraft of a registered airline with a published timetable for which a member of the public can purchase a ticket in advance. The flight must be part of a regular public service route, and charter flights are not permitted.

– Time starts when the flight leaves the runway at LAX and ends as soon as the final flight lands on the runway at the same airport, so the start and finish location must be the same.

– The journey must be in one direction, i.e., East to West, or West to East, and the attempt must cover a minimum distance of 36,787 kilometers. The trip must be continuous, with each leg beginning at the point where the last leg ended. From LA, Umit flew across the Atlantic.

Umit’s travel has been funded by Bahcesehir University in Turkey with all money raised going to the Guys Cancer Charity in the UK.

He has a taste for travel milestones, having broken the world record for the most countries visited in 24 hours via public transport, a total of 13. He’d like to break a rail record in China next.

Umit arrived in Los Angeles this morning to the cheers of passengers and followed this up with photos in the cockpit with the Qantas crew.

Umit will now have to submit his evidence and await confirmation of his record. He has been GPS tracked the entire way and has had pilots of all 3 flights sign his paperwork. He left Queensland with a range of souvenirs only available at Brisbane Airport and a current edition of The Australian as further evidence.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz, eTN editor

Linda Hohnholz, eTN editor

Linda Hohnholz has been writing and editing articles since the start of her working career. She has applied this innate passion to such places as Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade University, the Hawaii Children's Discovery Center, and now TravelNewsGroup.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
Share to...