Andrew Fisher flies around the world in a world record time of 52 hours and 34 minutes

Andrew Fisher, vice president fleet planning at Etihad Airways, has smashed the world record of flying around the globe in the shortest time frame with the fewest number of sectors. The previous record was set at 55 hours and 47 minutes, now Andrew has done it in 52 hours and 34 minutes (in four sectors).

Last Sunday (21 January 2018) Andrew (Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndrewFisherNZ) started his journey, first by leaving his passport at home. His first flight left Shanghai to Auckland, then he took a flight to Buenos Aires and Amsterdam before heading back to Shanghai. During his transit in Buenos Aires Andrew was really worried to miss his 55-minute connection to Amsterdam but he finally made it on time.

Before his world record attempt he commented: “The planning has taken a long time, essentially to ensure the flight timings, routings and transits are kept as tight as possible and there is only a short window of opportunity for this to happen.”

Previous records:

• 57 hours and 27 minutes by Brother Michael Bartlett on 23 November 2016: Shanghai – Auckland – Buenos Aires – Frankfurt – Hong Kong – Shanghai
• 55 hours and 47 minutes by Gil Azevedo on 12 February 2017: Shanghai – Auckland – Buenos Aires – Paris – Moscow – Shanghai

Rules to attempt the world record:

• The time will start from the moment the wheels of the first flight leave the runway and will stop when the wheels touch the runway at the same airport at the end of the itinerary
• Only flights which appear in a published timetable may be used.