Emirates A380 makes longest non-stop commercial flight

An Emirates Airbus A380 has travelled 14,200km (8,824 miles) to become the longest non-stop commercial flight beating the Qantas-held record of its Dallas-Sydney flight by 400km. The Emirates flight took more than 17 hours to reach Auckland, New Zealand from Dubai on 2 February.

According to Time, the flight's return journey will also be the longest by flight time, at about 17 hours and 15 minutes. Qantas's Dallas-Sydney flight took 16 hours and 55 minutes to complete. However, Emirates is looking to break its own record with the launch of its Dubai-Panama City flight that is expected to take 17 hours and 35 minutes to complete.

The Emirates flight, however, falls short of the now defunct route 19-hour Singapore-Newark flight of Singapore Airlines. The Asian carrier is planning to revive the route in 2018.

"I had a walk around the cabin. It's remarkably empty," Christopher Adams for the New Zealand Herald who travelled on board wrote. "A crew member tells me this is due to a load restriction on the A380 required for it to complete the marathon flight to Dubai."

"The children on board were all settled, a good thing for their parents and fellow travelers," Adams wrote. "Most people had facial expressions that said 'don't talk to me', but one woman standing at the back of the aircraft said the flight had been hard going," he added.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is also looking to launch a flight service to Santiago, Chile that could possibly beat the current longest non-stop commercial flight set by Emirates Airlines, Telegraph reported.