The Longest Flight in the World

An Airbus A380 passenger jet has broken a record for the longest flight by distance. It covered around 14 200km, which is around 400 kilometers longer than the previous record holder Qantas’ destination of Sydney-Dallas.

The flight was accomplished by UAE national carrier Emirates from Dubai to Auckland. It was a maiden flyover and for this reason an Airbus A380 was used. A Boeing-777 is expected to normally operate on the route.

The route was also supposed to break the longest duration record, but it arrived about an hour early. The return flight is still expected to beat the current holder. However, even with the projected timing of 17 hours and 15 minutes, it will not be anywhere near the now defunct route of Singapore-New Jersey by Singapore Airlines, that used to take almost 19 hours.

Emirates expect the flight to accrue huge popularity and plan to launch other long distance destinations such as Dubai-Panama later this year.

Intercontinental journeys are back in the airlines’ radars after recent economic recovery across most of the continents. Qatar Airways has also announced plans for the flight between Doha and Santiago as well as Auckland. More companies are likely to follow the suit.