Singapore Airlines longest ever flight SQ22 lands in New York

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The world's longest direct flight has touched down in New York after almost 18 hours in the sky.

The SQ22 from Singapore to New York took off at around 4.35pm (BST) after being delayed for a few minutes on Thursday afternoon.

The luxury Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR airbus jetted off from Newark International Airport, near New York City, and landed shortly before 5.30am local time (10.30am BST).

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has re-launched the service for the first time in five years after it was abandoned due to rising fuel prices.

The trip was scheduled to take almost 19 hours.

Singapore airlines carries out the final preparations on the plane set to make the longest ever non-stop flight (Singapore Airlines/Facebook)

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The flight landed at 5.29am at Newark, according to Singapore Airlines.

After arriving around half an hour ahead of schedule, the flight was in the air for 17 hours and 52 minutes.

Campbell Wilson, its senior vice president of sales and marketing, said the Airbus A350-900ULR, which was delivered two weeks ago, consumes 25 per cent less fuel than an older generation aircraft of the same size.

"It allows us to offer a service that eliminates a transfer in the middle, it saves people six hours, it gets people there in comfort ... we think it's going to be a good success," Mr Wilson said.

The flight does not offer economy seats. Instead, it has 94 more-spacious premium economy and 67 business class seats, which can fold out into a bed.

Business seats come with a mattress topper and firm and soft pillows. Bathrooms in the premium economy section are fitted with a spray for hydration. Passengers will have 1,200 hours of movie and television content to choose from, up from the usual 1,000.

The airbus' maiden voyage may be the most documented plane journey in history as passengers marked the occasion by recording their trip on social media.

People on-board tweeted pictures of the cushy interior and the lobster thermidore they were served for dinner.

Breakfast was served early on the flight as pilots expected choppy weather due to Hurricane Michael, and didn't want customers to end up "wearing their meals"