Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, with Hon Todd McClay, Minister of Trade and State Owned Enterprises; Ambassador Nasser bin Hamad Mubarak Al Khalifa; Adrian Littlewood, Auckland Airport Chief Executive; and QA Senior Vice President Asi
Qatar Airways was yesterday presented the anna.aero “Platinum Planet Prize”, an award recognising the world’s longest non-stop route, for launching a new direct service between Doha and Auckland with a distance of 14,526km.
Qatar Airways takes the record away from Emirates’ Dubai-Auckland service, which is 342km shorter according to OAG Schedules Analyser. All distances are calculated by anna.aero using OAG Analyser – the world’s most comprehensive airline schedules database.
The award was officially handed to Qatar Airways’ Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, on arrival at Auckland by anna.aero’s New Route Editor Jonathan Ford.
Paul Hogan, Publisher of anna.aero, said: “The award of the anna.aero Platinum Planet Prize, in association with our data partner OAG, gives distinction to Qatar Airways for its wave of pioneering route development. While ever-longer airline routes advance the cause of making the world even more connected, this prize also salutes the enterprise, entrepreneurship and marketing genius which goes into making these routes viable, lasting, and able to make a sustained contribution to the economies they serve.”
