Revealed: Longest flights from Abu Dhabi, Dubai

Gulf carriers dominate when it comes to ultra long-haul flights

Last updated:
Jay Hilotin, Senior Assistant Editor
3 MIN READ
An Etihad Airways Airbus A380 sporting the airline’s ‘Facets of Abu Dhabi’ livery conducts a
low-level fly-by of the Louvre Abu Dhabi during its opening.
An Etihad Airways Airbus A380 sporting the airline’s ‘Facets of Abu Dhabi’ livery conducts a low-level fly-by of the Louvre Abu Dhabi during its opening.
Supplied

Dubai: Australian carrier Qantas keeps grabbing headlines for record-breaking flights. For the record, however, it's the Gulf carriers that dominate commercial ultra long-haul flights, perhaps making the concept of stop-overs becoming increasingly obsolete.

On Friday, November 15, 2019, Qantas completed a "double sunrise" non-stop flight from London to Sydney. The London-Sydney research flight, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, carried 52 passengers.

It was a 19-hour-19-minute non-stop “test flight” from London to Sydney. The airline is nearing a decision on whether to order planes for what would be the world's longest-ever commercial route.

Last month, on October 21, a Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with 49 people on board also completed the 10,066-mile journey (16,200 km) from New York to Sydney in 19 hours and 16 minutes.

Ultra-long haul travel to and from the UAE

Travelers have a number of ultra-longhaul non-stop flights options — to and from the UAE — that are pretty close to these world records, too. Some of these routes are quite long, they will test your patience travelling in economy class to those destinations.

We’ve compiled a list of the farthest destinations that travellers can reach with a non-stop flight from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. While some of these flights are seasonal; others are year-round flights. This list may change in the near future as airlines keep adding and dropping routes.

Abu Dhabi – Los Angeles

  • Distance: 13,502 km (7290 mi)
  • Flying time: 16h35m
  • Airline: Etihad EY171
  • Aircraft: Airbus B777-300ER
  • Dubai – San Francisco

  • Distance: 13,420 km (8,339 mi)
  • Flying time: 16h20m
  • Airline: Emirates EK225
  • Aircraft: Airbus A380
  • Dubai to Los Angeles

  • Distance: 13,414 km (8,335 mi)
  • Flying time: 16h15m
  • Airline: Emirates EK215
  • Aircraft: Airbus A380
  • Dubai – Houston

  • Distance: 13,144 km (8,167 mi)
  • Flying time: 16h20m
  • Airline: Emirates EK211
  • Aircraft: Airbus A380
  • Dubai – Dallas/Fort Worth

  • Distance: 12,940 km (8,041 mi)
  • Flying time: 16h15m
  • Airline: Emirates EK221
  • Aircraft: B777-300ER
  • Auckland – Dubai

  • Distance: 14,193 km (8,819 mi)
  • Flying time: 17h0m
  • Airline: Emirates EK449
  • Aircraft: Airbus A380
  • Dubai – Auckland

  • Distance: 13,420 km (8,339 mi)
  • Flying time: 16h0m
  • Airline: Emirates EK448
  • Aircraft: Airbus A380
  • Abu Dhabi – Chicago

  • Distance: 11,700 km (7,270 mi)
  • Flying time: 15h20m
  • Airline: Etihad EY151
  • Aircraft: B777-300ER
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