Alitalia's record flight time aided by Storm Ciara jet stream.

Alitalia made record time crossing the Atlantic on 9 February, recording a flight time of six hours and 38 minutes between New York and Rome.

The Boeing 777, which took off from JFK airport at 17.18 (23.18 in Italy) on 8 February, landed at Leonardo da Vinci airport at 5.56 the next morning, more than an hour ahead of schedule.

The record, which saw the plane beat the normal flight time of seven and a half hours, was aided by a particularly intense jet stream blowing from America to Europe, helping the aircraft to reach speeds of 1,164 km per hour.

Milan

Alitalia also made history the same night in Milan after a flight from New York to Malpensa took just six hours and 12 minutes, compared to the average time of just over seven hours.

London

Meanwhile a British Airways flight BA112 crossed the Atlantic in just four hours and 56 minutes, with aviation experts hailing the flight as the fastest subsonic New York-London journey.

The Boeing 747-436 reached speeds of 1,327 km per hour as it rode a jet stream accelerated by Storm Ciara, landing in Heathrow 80 minutes ahead of schedule on 9 February.

The BA flight beat Norwegian Air's previous record of five hours 13 minutes, however the fastest transatlantic crossing belongs to BA Concorde, which flew from New York to London in two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds in 1996.