Wired: The (new) longest scheduled commercial flight
 

It's Emirates' new Dubai-Panama City service. Clocking in at 8,588 miles (13,821 km), it beats Qantas's Dallas-Sydney flight by 11 miles.

More information on wired.com here.

The quoted duration I saw was 17 hrs 35 mins -- you might need 2 Ambiens. Would not like to do this in coach, not even Emirates coach.

Does anyone have any insight as to what's in the Panama City area to warrant such a long flight to the ME?

Get me ANY flight in 1st or Business Class on a SQ B747-MEGATOP and I'll be a happy "Frequent-Flyer-Mile-High-Member" 8)

I think Panama City is becoming a significant hub for Latin America, particularly because of Copa Airlines.

That does seem like a very odd destination.

Emirates has 26 new aircraft planning to enter service this year. They have to fly them somewhere. PTY is an odd choice since Emirates isn't part of Star Alliance, and I don't believe it has code share with COPA. I can't imagine a lot of O&D traffic, and the last thing I'd want to do after a 17 hour flight is to connect on to another one. Don't be surprise if you see DXB-SLC or DXB-LAS (via Macau) coming soon.

What's interesting about the new longest flight, is how much shorter than SQ's former longest flight it really is :p

That would be great!

Isn't this flight only a few hundred miles longer than London to PER?

It is in fact 10 miles further than SYD <> DFW which is the current longest route (served by QANTAS)

Sounds a odd route to me give the costs of the fuel (you end up having to carry a lot of fuel just because of the weight of the fuel). But as they are not goverent subsidized I am sure there must be untapped demand.

I'm sure.;)

10 aircraft retiring as well. The link with COPA is coming and PTY avoids the nonsense of going through North America en route to many destinations.

They expect to carry a good deal of cargo, much of it high-value items. I suspect that any passengers who wander into the upper half of the aircraft are extra profit margin.

The point is to offer connections in Latin America and northern South America, whilst avoiding subjecting your passengers to US immigration. COPA is running a tight ship and has a nice little network, onto which EK passengers can connect. This, then, offers the most convenient 2-stop service to all of the ME, Subcontinent and Africa from the Americas and vice-versa.

I know people who've flown to holiday destinations in Central America via Panama City.

It could develop into a hub for EU and Asian tourism into Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Mexico etc.