Coronavirus: Saudia Airlines breaks longest flight record while repatriating citizens

A Saudia Airlines roundtrip flight carrying 187 Saudi Arabian citizens back to the Kingdom broke the record for the longest flight after it spent 40 hours in the air flying to the United States and back, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday.

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The plane, which was repatriating citizens from the US, flew from Los Angeles to Jeddah and then to Riyadh and back, for a total of 17 hours flight time each way.

The flight is considered one of the longest international flights in the world.

Upon their arrival, the eight pilots and 35 flight attendants were greeted with a round of applause from airport staff, a video shared on Twitter showed.

Passengers will be quarantined for 14 days starting from their arrival date and will be tested to ensure they have not been infected with the virus.

Saudi Arabia began repatriating its citizens this month after King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued an order to return all stranded citizens back to the Kingdom after the deadly coronavirus shut airports and halted flights around the world.

The Kingdom has so far reported 8,274 and 92 fatalities.