Qatar Airways broke a flying time record with its inaugural flight between Doha (DOH) and Auckland (AKL) last month.

The flight, which lasted a few minutes longer than 16 hours, was scheduled for 16 hours and 20 minutes. The Boeing 777 flight traveled more than 9,000 miles, across 10 time zones over Dubai, Oman, India, Sri Lanka and Western Australia before touching down in New Zealand. The flight flies from its base in Doha, Qatar, to Auckland, New Zealand, a distance making it the longest scheduled flight ever in terms of time spent in the air.

Keeping with international tradition to welcome inaugural flights, Auckland Airport rescue service showered the plane with water cannons on arrival.

The flight crew consisted of four pilots and 15 cabin crew for 217 economy seats and 42 business seats, serving 2,000 cold drinks, 1,100 cups of tea and coffee and more than 1,000 meals.

Emirates previously held by Emirates the record for its longest flight, on its non-stop service connecting Dubai (DXB) and Auckland.

Qatar broke its own record with the 17.5-hour, non-stop return flight from Auckland to Doha due to the prevailing headwinds.

The carrier’s status won’t be unchallenged for long as Singapore Airlines plans to resume its Singapore (SIN) to New York (JFK) route in 2018.
In terms of distance traveled, the Air India commercial service between Delhi (DEL) and San Francisco (SFO), at 9,505 miles is currently the longest, however the flight time is 14 hours and 30 minutes.