Qatar Airways: ready for the big haul

It would last 18 hours, 34 minutes.

The current record holder – Qantas’s Dallas-Sydney is a 8578 miles journey and takes 16 hours, 55 minutes.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO, told Bloomberg Business that it was also hoping to fly from Doha to Santiago in Chile: a 8,956-mile journey, as well as launch new routes to Marrakech, Lisbon and Phuket, but no start dates have yet been announced.

It is not only Qatar that is planning new long haul, Emirates also wants to launch a new Dubai to Panama City route on March 31. That journey will cover 8,595 miles and take approximately 17 hours 41 minutes, again toppling Qantas Dallas-Sydney flight.

Emirates and Qatar Airways will both use Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, which seats 217 passengers in economy class and 42 in premium, on their new ultra long-haul routes.