--- description: An Emirates Airbus A380 completed the world’s longest direct commercial flight when it touched down in Auckland on Wednesday title: Emirates Makes World's Longest Direct Flight image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44bbe4b5d42905c2/69887fdd0b72e36e0a6e85e6/gettyimages-496224798.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Aviation](/tag/aviation/) ## Aviation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # An Emirates Plane Just Made the World's Longest Direct Commercial Flight by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 2, 2016 9:12 AM CUT  The engine of an Airbus SAS A380-800 aircraft hangs from the wing of an Emirates Airline aircraft on the opening day of the 14th Dubai Air Show in Dubai on Nov. 8, 2015 The engine of an Airbus SAS A380-800 aircraft hangs from the wing of an Emirates Airline aircraft on the opening day of the 14th Dubai Air Show in Dubai on Nov. 8, 2015Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 2, 2016 9:12 AM CUT An Emirates Airbus A380 flew into the record books on Wednesday when it [landed](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/02/emirates-plane-completes-worlds-longest-flight "undefined") in Auckland after completing the world’s longest direct commercial flight. The journey, which began some 8,824 miles away in Dubai, overshot Qantas’ Sydney-to-Dallas flight by about 250 miles, according to the _Guardian._ The return journey on the Middle Eastern carrier, from Auckland to Dubai, will also be the longest by flight time, at about 17 hours and 15 minutes. But Emirates will break this record again when it launches the 17-hour-and-35-minute service between Dubai and Panama City later this month. But both of these flights fall short of the now-defunct [Singapore Airlines](http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/06/singapore-newark "undefined") route between the Southeast Asian island and Newark, N.J., that took nearly 19 hours. \[[_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/02/emirates-plane-completes-worlds-longest-flight "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4244323/emirates-route-longest-direct-flight-travel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4244323/emirates-route-longest-direct-flight-travel/"},"headline":"An Emirates Plane Just Made the World's Longest Direct Commercial Flight","datePublished":"2016-03-02T09:12:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:30:38.828Z","description":"The airline also plans to break its new record very soon","url":"https://time.com/4244323/emirates-route-longest-direct-flight-travel/","keywords":["Aviation","Newsfeed","Travel","flight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44bbe4b5d42905c2/69887fdd0b72e36e0a6e85e6/gettyimages-496224798.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44bbe4b5d42905c2/69887fdd0b72e36e0a6e85e6/gettyimages-496224798.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Opening Day Of The Dubai Air Show 2015","caption":"Opening Day Of The Dubai Air Show 2015","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aviation/","name":"Aviation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4244323/emirates-route-longest-direct-flight-travel/","name":"An Emirates Plane Just Made the World's Longest Direct Commercial Flight"}}]}] ```