in flight for 83.5 million kilometers (Earth-Venus round trip) – Corriere.it

Putting together the distances covered at high altitude by all three, it turns out that it is possible to go to Venus. And return to Earth. Or, closer to us, the equivalent of 109 round trips between our planet and the Moon. Two flew with one airline. Over the past year and a half, one of these has traveled an average of three thousand kilometers every day: the distance between Milan and Tenerife, the Canary Islands. Between them, without even hiding it too much, there is the battle to see who stays longer at an altitude of 39,000 feet. Meet Tom, Fred and Todd, the serial passengers who live in airport lounges and business class.

The record in 18 months

The last to be celebrated, in chronological order, is Todd of whom we only know the initial of his surname (O.): at the beginning of March he reached the goal of 14 million miles flown (22.5 million kilometres) with the same airline: Delta Air Lines. And the colossus of the US skies to celebrate it. Todd covered the distance of 1.6 million kilometers in just 18 months, the carrier explains, thus covering an average daily distance of 2,940 kilometers. Actually the only thing I do is sitting in an armchair, he comments after being showered with cake by Delta employees.

The celebration

Todd now knows all the ground staff of the US company after twenty years of frequenting airport lounges. And after all, for him, the operations center also sent an Acars message (the digital connection system between the aircraft and the mainland) to the cockpit while the serial traveler was flying from Zurich to New York on his birthday. It was an honor to help Todd reach his goal of flying 22.5 million kilometers.

Favorite place

Todd’s first flight, he recalls, was aboard a Pan Am plane when he was 8 years old. Every summer the father took the family to a different place. Then in the nineties the man begins to travel alone. The most amazing thing about flying is that in three, seven or ten hours you can be taken to a completely different place from your own or you can be reunited with your family. Favorite plane? The Boeing 747, he replies, speaking of a model that is about to retire. Among modern jets, however, he likes the Airbus A350 and the A330neo. By the way: window or corridor? Window, always. I love to see the world from above.

The record

Todd – whose use we do not know – finds himself chasing Tom Stuker in the standings who over the years has accumulated over 12,000 flights and exceeded 37 million kilometers (the figure updated to July 2022, therefore lower than the real one). Tom, who moves to train people to run car dealerships, is aiming for 40.2 million kilometers by 2026 and possibly with the same company he’s always used: United Airlines. Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic Stuker was flying an average of 200 to 250 days a year. And to those who contest the impact of carbon dioxide emissions in the air, he always replies that the plane flies anyway, with or without me.

In Guinness

Closer to Todd is Fred W. Finn, certified by the Guinness Book of Records in 2003 as the one who traveled the most in the world: Fred, who worked for multinationals, today has exceeded 24 million kilometers in flying since 1958 — with various airlines — including 718 flights in Concorde, the supersonic jet decommissioned in 2003. Fred has been to 150 countries. And the list is growing every year.