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For the purpose of this question,

  • temperature refers to daily mean temperature in a month (shown as "daily mean" on Wikipedia) of the city/town that an airport primarily serves

  • passenger flight refers to scheduled flights and public charters with a published schedule

  • it can be any month of the year

Example:

Singapore (SIN) - Moscow (DME) SQ 362 in February, daily mean for Singapore 27.1°C, daily mean for Moscow -6.7°C, difference 33.8°C.

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  • 4
    I took a flight from Miami to Cleveland on 19-Jan-1994. 70F (21C) when we left Miami. -20F (-29C) when we got to Cleveland. Total difference: 90F (50C). Not an answer as this was a one-off occurrence - the -20 in Cleveland set a new record.
    – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 16:48
  • So far, the answers go from northern hemisphere to southern in Jan/Feb. What’s the coldest airport/month in the south, and the opposite in the north? I left Spain one June just before it reached 38°C.
    – WGroleau
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 23:36
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    @WGroleau There's a lot less land mass in the southern hemisphere, and (AFAIK) no major cities where monthly average temps are negative. Even Ushuaia, at the southern tip of South America, and Queenstown, ski capital of southern New Zealand, stay above zero in town in July.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 23:49
  • @WGroleau All the cities given so far are north of the equator, if only just.
    – Ross Ridge
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 1:54
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    When you say “passenger flight”, do you mean scheduled passenger flight? Or do flights carrying personnel to and from Antarctic research stations count?
    – Mike Scott
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 12:26

6 Answers 6

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Bangkok to Ulaanbaatar in January: 27.0 °C – (–21.6 °C) = 48.6 °C.

Nonstop flights are operated by MIAT Mongolian Airlines, twice weekly (Wednesday and Saturday) from November to March. Timetable.

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    Seems like the real gem is in Mongolia!
    – Asura
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 19:03
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    Ding ding ding, this is likely the winner: UB is the world's coldest capital city, so this will be tough to beat.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 1:57
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+500

I have done some more research and found a rather obscure one.

Pegas Fly operates a seasonal charter EO 2479 from Chita to Phuket, every two weeks, from January to May.

Full schedule can be found on the Pegas Touristik website.

In January, there is a staggering difference of 28.1-(-25.2) = 53.3°C.

It also appears that Nordwind Airlines, of which Pegas Fly is a subsidiary, operates a seasonal charter N4 2521 from Yakutsk (-38.6°C in January) to Pattaya (26.1°C in January).

At a difference of 64.7°C, we would have had the certain winner here. Unfortunately, according to FlightMapper, that flight stops in Irkutsk for an hour, which is about 20°C warmer than Yakutsk.

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I nominate S7 6330 Phuket–Irkutsk in January. 28,1 – (–17,8) = 45,9 °C.

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  • Russia is always a good place to look! I have found a similar one, Bangkok-Khabarovsk S7 6445 in January, difference 27.0-(-19.8) = 46.8℃
    – Asura
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 18:54
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I nominate Harbin-Singapore, operated by Scoot (TR 155). The mean temperature in Harbin is -17.6°C in January, while in Singapore it's 26.5°C, for a total difference of 44.1°C. The flight time is 7.5 hours. Yakutsk is significantly colder with a daily mean of -38.6° in January, but there aren't direct flights to any warm cities from Yakutsk airport during the winter.

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    That's a good one, I wasn't looking in that direction at all!
    – Asura
    Commented Dec 22, 2019 at 1:43
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A comment noted that all answers to date have both cities in the northern hemisphere (winter in January), so here's one with one end in the southern hemisphere (winter in July).

enter image description here (courtesy mapsofworld.com)

In general, the southern hemisphere has a lot less land mass than the north, and (AFAIK) not a single major city where daily mean winter temperatures go negative. The best I could find is Dubai to Buenos Aires, with 35.5 - 7.4 in July, for a comparatively puny temperature difference of 28.1°C.

For other temperature hunters, Riyadh is slightly hotter (36.8) but has less long-distance flights, while Doha and Abu Dhabi are very slightly cooler. On the cool side, Johannesburg hits 9.6 in June (10.0 in July) while Auckland clocks in at a balmy 10.9.

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  • The Wikipedia page for DXB shows a flight to Christchurch, NZ (CHC) which would be slightly better (averaging 5.7C in July), but unfortunately that flight isn't nonstop; it stops in Sydney.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 2:24
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    there's really no need to cross the equator, the tropical zone is hot all year round.
    – Jasen
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 5:07
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    @Jasen The Middle East is much hotter than the tropics during the northern summer.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Dec 23, 2019 at 7:40
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I will nominate my personal experience although this may count as an outlier case. In February / March 2018, there was a storm called Beast from the East that hit quite a few parts of Europe.

I had to fly from Munich to Chennai during the end of Feb, via Frankfurt (LH 758) with a 2 hour halt.

  • Temperature in Munich = -18
  • Temperature in Frankfurt = -10
  • Temperature in Chennai = 34

Difference between Munich (-18) and Chennai (34) = 52 degrees

Difference between Frankfurt (-10) and Chennai (34) = 44 degrees

I was sitting with my multi layered jacket for a really long time after the flight took off from Frankfurt; I felt like I was melting when I landed in Chennai.

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    Unfortunately this is not a non-stop flight as requested by OP. Else I would nominate my personal experience of flying from Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, Mauritius back to Riga, Latvia at around January 1st. From +31C to -22C: 53 degree change. But (a) it was via Frankfurt (or was it Vienna?), and (b) this is not necessarily the mean temperature in Riga. Nevertheless it was memorable, not least for the fact that it didn't feel cold at all in Riga. And incidentally after experiencing this drop, I didn't have a cold for at least 3 winters.
    – Gnudiff
    Commented Dec 24, 2019 at 17:50

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