1. The markets were messy as president Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly considered finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s offer to resign. After hitting R14.98/$ yesterday, the rand was at R14.84 this morning.

2. The Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini wants Ramaphosa to sign an agreement that would exclude the land he controls from land reform. Zwelithini controls 2.8 million hectares as part of the Ingonyama Trust.

3. Toyota has stopped operations at its Durban assembly plant and a Johannesburg warehouse because of a strike by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).  The factory and warehouse remain shut today.

4. Eskom won’t require government cash injections over the next 12 months, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told Reuters. He added that job losses weren’t currently on the table.

5. The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs resumes its investigation into the process followed in the naturalisation of the Gupta family this morning in parliament.

The 11 longest flights in the world

On Thursday, Singapore Airlines will relaunch its non-stop flights between Singapore Changi Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport outside of New York City.

The flight will once again be the longest in the world, covering a distance of 16,668km over nearly 19 hours of flying.

The resurgence in these marathon flights can be attributed to the availability of more affordable oil and a new generation of fuel-efficient airliners like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350. In addition, the change in consumer preference in favour of non-stop point-to-point flying has helped drive this revival.

Singapore Airlines will operate the new non-stop service using a brand new fleet of seven Airbus A350-900ULRs- ULR stands for ultra long range.

Singapore's A350-900ULRs, the only seven in the world right now, will be equipped with 67 business class and 94 premium economy seats. There are no first-class suites or economy class seats on board. With just 161 seats, the ULRs will carry 92 fewer passengers than the rest of Singapore's A350-900 fleet.

Singapore previously operated the route using Airbus A340-500 airliners before suspending the service in 2013. The airline simply couldn't sustain the route financially using the fuel-guzzling, four-engine Airbus with just 100 business-class seats.

Last year, Qatar Airways launched the longest flight in the world between its home base in Doha, Qatar and Auckland, New Zealand. At Emirates, upgraded its flight from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Auckland from a Boeing 777 to an Airbus A380. It's now the third longest flight in the world and longest operated by a superjumbo.

United has relaunched non-stop service from San Francisco to Singapore, one of the longest flights operated out of the US while Qantas is going non-stop between Perth in Western Australia and London.

There's so much going on in ultra-long-haul flying that Business Insider turned to air travel intelligence firm OAG for the authoritative list of the long flights in the world.

Here are the 10 longest flights in the world, ranked:

11. Emirates: Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Los Angeles, California: 13,396km.


10. Etihad Airways: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates to Los Angeles, California: 13,478km


9. Delta Air Lines: Atlanta, Georgia to Johannesburg, South Africa: 13,573km.


8. United Airlines/Singapore Airlines: San Francisco, California to Singapore: 13,575km.


7.Qantas: Dallas, Texas to Sydney, Australia: 13,802km.


6. United Airlines: Houston, Texas to Sydney, Australia: 13,829km.


5. United Airlines: Los Angeles, California to Singapore: 14,096km.

United Airlines

4. Emirates: Auckland, New Zealand to Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 14,194km.


3. Qantas: Perth, Australia to London, England: 14,498km.


2. Qatar Airways: Auckland, New Zealand to Doha, Qatar: 14,525km

Qatar Airways

1. Singapore Airlines: Singapore to Newark, New Jersey: 16,667km.

Reporting by Benjamin Zhang


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