Gulf carriers compete for longest flight

Dubai

A BOEING Co 777-200LR will touch down in Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday after journeying 8,824 miles (14,200 km) from Dubai, grabbing the title of world's longest scheduled airline flight for Gulf carrier Emirates.

Not to be outdone, Qatar Airways will this year offer services to Santiago in Chile, some 140 miles further again, as well as its own Auckland route, which by dint of Doha's location west of Dubai will extend the record by 200 miles.

The leading Gulf carriers are adding performance-stretching destinations after largely exhausting the potential for new links between the biggest cities. Their desert hubs, located at the confluence of flight paths between Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, are also drawing in enough transit passengers to deliver the critical mass ne…