Emirates Airline is set to operate the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight starting 2016 between Dubai and Panama City.

The Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Ahmed-bin-Saeed al-Maktoum, said on Friday in Dubai that the flight would be 17 hours and 35 minutes long, beginning from February 1.

He said Emirates would be using a Boeing 777-200LR with a capacity to carry 266 passengers over the 13,821-kilometre stretch.

Al-Maktoum added that the new stretch was 17 kilometres further than the world’s currently longest non-stop flight, the Qantas route between Sydney and Dallas.

He noted that Singapore Airlines, for financial reasons in 2013, cancelled the 15,344-kilometre-long flight between Singapore and Newark, New Jersey.