Why Airlines On 4 Continents Are Sending Regional Jets On 5-Hour Holiday Flights

This past winter, a very surprising visitor sat on the tarmac at Phu Quoc Airport (PQC). The Vietnamese island, renowned for its white-sand beaches and luxurious resorts, is accustomed to seeing a wide diversity of airlines and aircraft, from large widebodies jetting in from faraway Prague or Seoul, to regional puddle-jumpers that connect the island to the mainland. But this visitor was remarkably different — a regional jet, which is not at all uncommon, but this one had just flown over 2,500 miles nonstop from the steppes of Mongolia.