Berlin to Singapore

Two Eurofighter jets perform at the German air force base in Noervenich, western Germany in 2016 [File: Martin Meissner/AP]

This story piqued my interest:

German fighter jets on marathon 24-hour flight to Singapore - Al Jazeera

A group of German air force fighter jets were due to arrive in Singapore after a marathon bid to fly them some 12,800 kms (8,000 miles) from their home base to Southeast Asia in just 24 hours.

I asked Google to plot a flight from Berlin to Singapore:

Berlin to Singapore

No problem, $1200 and 13 hours and presto, you're in Singapore. Never mind that you are going to be flying over any number of war zones, they probably won't shoot you down.

But here we have jet fighters that can travel 3 or 4 times as fast as an airliner taking twice as long to make the trip. One thing that will slow them down is they will probably want to avoid the war zones, so their trip will be a longer distance.

Berlin to Cairo to Singapore

Stopping off at Cairo and then flying over Saudi Arabia might work, although it's hard to tell with the way alliances are constantly shifting. I think Egypt and Saudi Arabia are both allied with the USA, but I could be wrong. I suspect most of the extra 12 hours was consumed with obtaining clearance to fly over intermediate countries.