World's longest non-stop flight has been achieved

“This is an important development for our customers, for Emirates, and for New Zealand. We anticipate high demand for the route, providing a further boost to inbound tourist traffic into New Zealand that now exceeds three million a year. We also expect the service to be popular with New Zealanders seeking faster connections to Europe and the Middle East,” said Gary Chapman, President Group Services & dnata, Emirates Group.

Emirates’ new service will bring New Zealand much closer to destinations in Europe and the Middle East than at present, with an estimated flight time of just under 16 hours from Dubai to New Zealand and 17 hours, 15 minutes in the other direction, cutting journey times by almost three hours each way.

Tourists, in particular, will now have more options – travelling to Auckland with a stopover in Australia on one of the award-winning airline’s three daily A380 services, flying non-stop direct into Auckland on the Boeing 777-200LR, or flying to the South Island on the daily Boeing 777-300ER Christchurch service.

Joining Mr Chapman onboard the first flight from Dubai were: the New Zealand Ambassador to the UAE, Jeremy Clarke-Watson; and the chief executive of Emirates Team New Zealand, Grant Dalton, returning from pre-America’s Cup yachting held in Oman.

In command on the A380 flight deck today was New Zealander Andrew Duncan Mcfarlane and the cabin crew included several New Zealanders. Emirates employs nearly 400 New Zealanders, including 140 cabin crew and 95 pilots.

With the introduction of the non-stop service, Emirates will fly more than 2,000 seats a day in each direction on New Zealand services. Other features that the new flight will bring include:

• No Australian transit visa for travellers from many countries – benefitting tourism and travel both ways
• Good departure time from Auckland that will allow a full day’s business to be completed before travel
• Convenient arrival and departure times at Auckland that will mean excellent connections in each direction with partner Jetstar’s regional NZ domestic flights
• Excellent economic benefits for Zealand – estimated to contribute an extra NZ$125 million a year to the economy, in addition to the economic benefit derived from Emirates’ existing four daily services to New Zealand.

The Boeing 777-200LR aircraft that will operate the new, non-stop route are purpose-built for ultra-longhaul flights, carrying up to 266 passengers. Like Emirates’ other New Zealand flights, the aircraft will offer three cabin classes: in the case of the Boeing 777, eight First Class suites, 42 lie-flat Business Class seats and 216 comfortable Economy Class seats.

The flights will feature Emirates’ gourmet meals and fine wines, and more than 2,000 channels of entertainment and information will be available on large, individual screens. Passengers will have the airline’s usual generous free baggage allowances – 30kg for Economy Class, 40kg for Business Class and 50kg for First Class.

New Zealand exporters will also benefit from the new service, being able to access more capacity through Dubai, one of the world’s major cargo hubs, particularly of benefit with perishable goods for markets in the Middle East and Africa regions. New Zealand is renowned for its high quality produce including dairy products.