Qatar Airways may be about to launch the longest flight in the world.
Airline CEO Akbar Al Baker told Bloomberg that Qatar will add an ultra-long-haul route between the company’s hub in Doha, Qatar, and Auckland, New Zealand.
Should Al Baker’s airline go ahead with the nonstop route, it would be the longest continuous flight in the world, with a distance of 9,034 miles that would last 18 1/2 hours.
Currently, the longest flight in the world is Qantas’ Sydney-to-Dallas route, which covers 8,577 miles and last 16 hours 55 minutes, according to Statista.
Next year, Emirates is expected to beat Qantas for the honor with a new route between Dubai and Panama City, Panama. That flight will cover 8,588 miles and last 17 hours 35 minutes.
But all three will be eclipsed when Singapore Airlines re-launches its direct flight from Singapore to New York.
The 9,500-mile, 19-hour affair was discontinued in 2013 because of high fuel costs and the early retirement of the A340-500 aircraft used to operate the flight.
But Singapore announced in October that it will resume the flight after it takes delivery of the airline’s new Airbus A350-900ULR.
Qatar is expected to deploy the airline’s existing fleet of Boeing 777-200LR Worldliners. The Worldliner can carry more than 300 passengers with a range of 9,845 miles.
