Qatar Airways longest flight – the longest flight in the world – is currently en route from Doha, Qatar to Auckland, New Zealand. This flight is 9,032 miles or 14,535 kilometres long and is scheduled at 16 hours one way and 17 hours and 40 minutes on the return.
The oneworld carrier chose the ultra long range Boeing 777-200LR to operate their QR920 and QR921 services and you can follow the inaugural trip today on Snapchat.
A World of Fun Figures
A fun graphic to celebrate the start of the longest flight in the world has been created and shared on Facebook and Twitter. New Zealand is known for sheep and the Kiwifruit and you can see how the airline has playfully translated some of the items on board into food and animals.
There are a lot of meals on board – over 1,000 much to my surprise – so it looks like passengers won’t go hungry on this flight!
Snapchat Celebration
Social media is playing a part in the inaugural flight with the team using Snapchat so people can go along for the ride.
Video and photos are available for the next 24 hours celebrating the flight. It is currently in the air heading for Auckland so here is a selection from the Qatar Airways Snapchat story before take off.
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- Departures board at Doha
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- Certificate for passengers
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- Box of yummy sweets
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- Special menu for the trip!
No doubt there will be much more added to the story once the flight arrives at its destination. It is great to see some celebration happening around the flight as it is a pretty big deal.
On Board Product
Seating on board is not the latest Qatar Airways offer. Business class is in a 2x2x2 configuration with 42 lie flat seats. The airline is considered to have one of the best business class products in the sky with dining on demand and a world class entertainment system.
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- Comfortable business class flat seats
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- Mood lighting in economy class
Economy class features 217 standard seats and it will be interesting to see how people cope here. Mood lighting on board should help passengers adjust accordingly.
Happily the same entertainment system is offered throughout the aircraft so there will be plenty of time to watch whatever you like to make the time pass quickly.
Overall Thoughts
It is exciting to see the longest flight in the world commence service after being delayed from the original December 2016 launch date. I am scheduled to fly on this service in April and I am quite looking forward to it.
Have you experienced an ultra long haul flight before? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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All images via Qatar Airways and oneworld. Featured image by Aero Icarus via Wikimedia Commons.
“Mood lighting on board should help passengers adjust accordingly.”
Yes I’m sure lighting will make a substantial difference to comfort on a 17h flight.
Interestingly enough it actually does. I find mood lighting to make for a much more soothing experience especially on the wake up. It’s never fun to wake up to bright lights, so the mood lighting approximating dawn makes it far easier on the body. Thanks for the comment!