Doha – Qatar Airways launched the world’s longest non-stop scheduled commercial service with its inaugural flight from Doha to Auckland (New Zealand) taking off early on Sunday, a company spokeswoman said.
Flight QR920 left the Qatari capital at 5:02am (0202 GMT) and is set to land in New Zealand at 7:30am local time (1830 GMT) on Monday.
The Boeing 777 flight will take 16 hours and 20 minutes, pass over 10 time zones, five countries and travel 14,535 kilometres before reaching Auckland.
Due to high-altitude winds, the return flight will take 17 hours and 30 minutes.
In March 2016, Emirates airline launched what was then thought to be the world’s longest scheduled commercial flight, with a service from Dubai to Auckland (14,200 km).
