At 17+ hours, Qatar Airways' Auckland flight is among world's longest
By David Flynn, March 10 2016
Qatar Airways will begin direct flights to Auckland from December 3 and in the process put one of the world's longest non-stop flights onto its network map.
The 9,000 mile journey on a long-range Boeing 777-200LR jet will see passengers strapped in for around 17½ hours, eclipsing Qantas' Sydney-Dallas Airbus A380 trek by one hour.
Flight QR921 will depart Auckland at 2.40pm to reach Qatar's Doha hub at 10.20pm the same day – and trust us, it's going to be a long day at that!
The Doha-Auckland leg shaves an hour off the total travel time, with QR920 wheels-up from Doha at 2.10am for a 4.30am arrival into Auckland the following day.
The Oneworld member has been making a steady push into the Asia-Pacific region, with Sydney-Doha flights starting only last week and Adelaide seeing Qatar's Airbus A350 in May.
The Auckland route was announced at the ITB Berlin travel show overnight along with 13 other destinations across Europe, Africa and Asia.
Also read: Qatar Airways to reveal 'Super Business Class' seat in November
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
21 Aug 2014
Total posts 501
QR is here now to take the world's longest flight title away from EK until they start flying to Panama and then will get passed by SQ.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
Panama? EK canned that... and even if they relaunch it, it's shorter than DXB-AKL as far as i know.
11 Aug 2015
Total posts 23
Does anyone know what other routes they have announced? Who cares about the world longest flight? I know I will never want to go on 'the worlds longest flight' in my lifetime. Too many carriers (especially gulf ones) are caring to much about who has the worlds longest flight. As long as the flight is profitable this would make sense otherwise it's just for bragging rights.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
I don't know, I'd be pretty keen to hop onto a SYD-ORD non-stop
12 Feb 2014
Total posts 229
AJ seems keen on a Perth to London direct with a 787. That would be about 200kms further than Auckland to Dubai. It would likely be a very popular option too, despite the domestic/international transfer hassle at Perth Airport.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Mar 2014
Total posts 38
Nice, Pisa, Sarajevo, Skopje, Helsinki, Marrakech, Windhoek, Lusaka, Douala, Libreville, Seychelles, Chiang Mai, Krabi
Qatar Airways
04 Apr 2014
Total posts 25
I think this is the bigger story. This is a huge programme of expansion.
American Airlines - AAdvantage
13 Jul 2015
Total posts 274
Their 777-200's still have their old Business product right?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Jun 2015
Total posts 46
Yeah 2-2-2 configuration, that would be uncomfortable for a 27 and a half hour flight, even if it is in busniess class
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 127
I'm sure one would feel very special arriving in AKL at that hour after a marathon flight. You'd want to have booked a hotel for the night before to make sure you had somewhere to go
Qantas
13 Jun 2015
Total posts 139
QR and EK now have two ultra long haul flights from ME to AKL. Hopefully there will be a massive competition for the Middle East Carriers when EY launches non-stop ULH flights to Auckland.
18 Nov 2011
Total posts 33
As on airlinerroute.net
Reservations for some of these new routes opened on mid-day Wednesday.
[Deleted by admin - copyright]
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2424
Hi William - cheers much for your contribution here, although copying and pasting large bodies of text from other websites isn't usually permitted under local and international copyright laws, and as a result we've had to remove this part of your post. :)
Air New Zealand - NZ*E
17 May 2015
Total posts 93
Airlines don't make money with their aircraft on the ground - it looks like the QR 777-200LR will be on the ground in Auckland for just over 10hours before returning to DOH. Am I missing anything here... this does not make sense? Or is QR planning to exercise a fifth freedom out of AKL? Are their Crew requirements? Any ideas...?
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