World’s Longest Ever Flight by Qatar Airways!

We have seen trains and buses that take days to reach the destination but flights are a different deal altogether. When you think of airplanes you think of quick journeys. But not this one! Qatar Airways have cut out the middleman to overhaul the longest flight on record from Doha, Qatar to Auckland, New Zealand.

A Boeing 777 flight QR920 departed from Doha and landed in Auckland on 6^th February 2017, Monday after flying 9,031 miles (14,535 kilometres). The outbound flight took 16 hours 23 minutes while the inbound flight clocked 17 hours and 30 minutes. There were four pilots on board, as well as 15 cabin crew who served 1,100 cups of tea and coffee, 2,000 cold drinks and 1,036 meals during the flight. Fares for the route start at 4,825 Qatari reals (Rs. 88, 187) for a return economy flight, or 33,285 QAR (Rs. 6, 08, 910) in first class.  New Zealand’s trade minister, Todd McClay, has estimated that the economic impact of the new service would be more than 29.3 million pounds due to the increased capacity.

The record title was taken from the competition company, Emirates, who held the previous record for the longest flight – Dubai to Auckland at 8,823 miles (14,200 kilometres). Also Air India claims to have the longest route from Delhi to San Francisco but the on ground distance is shorter than the Doha-Auckland route.

But the Qatar crown won’t go unchallenged for long. Many airlines are now looking to cut short the layover process and introduce longer flights. The Perth-London service will cover 9,009 miles (14,498 kilometres) when it begins March 2018. Singapore Airlines is also planning to resume its Singapore to New route next year. All in all, get ready to cut short your travel time while spending more of it inside the air plane cabin.