The world’s longest commercial flight landed in New Zealand with the arrival of Qatar Airways’s 14,535 kilometres Doha-Auckland service.
Qatar Airways is the new titleholder for the world’s longest regularly scheduled airline flight.
The airline inaugurated service on the 9,032-mile route between its Doha hub and Auckland, New Zealand.
Flight time on the route is 16 hours, 10 minutes, on the New Zealand-bound leg.
The return, which typically faces more headwinds, is scheduled for a whopping 17 hours, 30 minutes.
Qatar Airways’ new service edges it past Middle East rival Emirates, whose 8,819-mile route from Dubai to Auckland clocks in at 16 hours, 5 minutes, in the direction of New Zealand and at 17 hours, 20 minutes on the return.
With that, Qatar Airways can now claim the world’s longest flight both by time and by distance.