United says new LA-Singapore route will be longest from US

United Airlines says it will start flying between Los Angeles and Singapore, a distance of about 8,700 miles, making it the longest route to or from the United States.

Westbound flights will be a derriere-numbing 17 hours and 55 minutes. They will leave Los Angeles each evening and arrive two days later local time in Singapore.

The eastbound leg will take 15 hours and 15 minutes with the prevailing tail wind.

The airline said Thursday that assuming it gets government approval, flights will start Oct. 27 using Boeing 787 planes.

The longest current U.S. flight is Qantas' 8,578-mile trip between Dallas-Fort Worth and Sydney, Australia.

Among flights that don't touch the U.S., Qatar Airways flies a 9,032-mile route between its hub in Doha and Auckland, New Zealand.