SQ1 distance and great-circle path
SQ1 covers 13,580 km, or 8,438 miles. That makes it an ultra-long-range flight, one of the longest commercial sectors flown anywhere. Of the 439 routes we track, it ranks 14 by distance.
The plane leaves Singapore heading north-east. On the map above, the line looks curved. That is normal. The shortest path over a round planet never looks straight on a flat screen. Our guide explains how the SIN-SFO route appears on a tracker map.
Why SQ1 block time differs from cruise time
The schedule allows 17.1 hours from gate to gate. That works out to about 795 km/h. A Boeing 777-300ER cruises faster than that. The gap is taxi time, climbing, descending and holding.
Winds aloft shift the real flight time by up to an hour in either direction. See how timing changes the trip in our red-eye flight guide.
Can the Boeing 777-300ER comfortably fly SQ1?
Yes. The route uses roughly 99% of what a Boeing 777-300ER can fly. On a windy day the airline may carry less cargo to save fuel. Flights this close to the limit are the ones that sometimes make a fuel stop. The full numbers are on our aircraft page for the Boeing 777-300ER.
What to know about SQ1
- Time change: you land 15 hours behind the time you left. That is enough to cause jet lag. Here is how pilots handle it.
- Crosses the date line: the calendar date changes while you are in the air.
- Flies far north: the real path runs much closer to the pole than a flat map suggests.