Dubai: Emirates beat out Qantas on Wednesday to fly the world’s longest non-stop route when it launched a direct service from Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand.
The 17-hours-and-15-minute return leg will overtake Qantas’ 16-hour flight from Dallas to Sydney, which was the world’s longest. Later this month, Emirates will outdo itself when its launches direct flights from Dubai to Panama that it says will take 17 hours and 35 minutes in the winter.
The Emirates Auckland service was announced in late January, which is short notice compared to the time between announcing and starting a destination by the airline.
The motivator? Qatar Airways’ Chief Akbar Al Baker had said he was planning non-stop flights to New Zealand and also to Chile in South America.
“Emirates likely saw Qatar’s development in a key market as an unacceptable challenge,” Will Horton, senior analyst at CAPA — Centre for Aviation, told Gulf News in January.
“It has to be a record or near-record to launch a long-haul flight in five weeks,” he said.
Relaunch
For many years, the world’s longest non-stop flight title was held by Asia’s Singapore Airlines, which once flew from the city-state to New York City direct. The airline axed the route in 2013, but said late last year it plans to relaunch the ultra-long haul flight as soon as 2018 using new Airbus A350s.
Emirates will continue to serve New Zealand on flights that stop over on the Australian east coast in addition to its new direct service. The airline flies three times daily to Auckland via Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney with the A380, and once daily to Christchurch via Australia with a Boeing 777-300ER (extended range). The non-stop flight is flown with a Boeing 777-200LR (long range), but the inaugural service was operated by an A380.
