New York to London flight record smashed by low-cost airline Norwegian Air

A flight from New York to London has broken the record for the fastest-ever transatlantic passenger journey in a subsonic aircraft.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner completed the 3,458-mile trip in just 5 hours, 13 minutes - arriving 53 minutes ahead of schedule.

Passengers on board the Norwegian Air flight reached a ground speed of up to 776mph as the plane flew from JFK airport to Gatwick. It was aided by strong jetstream tailwinds which reportedly blew at 202mph.

Flight DY7014 beat the previous record achieved by a British Airways jet in 2015. That flight managed the crossing in 5 hours, 16 minutes.

According to data from FlightRadar, passengers left JFK at 11.44am and arrived at Gatwick at 21.57 UK time.

Captain Harold van Damm said that his journey would have been even faster had it not been for turbulence at lower altitudes.

"The 787 Dreamliner is a pleasure to fly and it's a great feeling to know that we have set a new record in this aircraft," he told the Daily Mail.

'When flying we record groundspeed - like a car travelling on the ground - and airspeed due to the varying wind speeds experienced during flight. The highest groundspeed during the flight was 776mph, more than the speed of sound. However, airspeed is actually slower than groundspeed.

"Therefore, our airspeed was at Mach 0.85, below Mach 1.0 needed to go supersonic and break the sound barrier," he said.

His Norwegian Air colleague, Captain Pascal Niewold, completed the same journey in just 5 hours and 20 minutes on the previous day.

Strengthening jetstream winds blow from west to east during the winter and pilots require a huge slice of luck in order to ride the tailwinds for an entire journey. However, the meteorological phenomenon blows only in one direction and passengers flying from Europe to America may experience longer flights.

The fastest ever transatlantic passenger flight was recorded in 1996 by a British Airways Concorde which flew from JFK to Heathrow in a recorded flight time of 2 hours, 52 minutes, clocking a top speed of 1,350mph.