Qatar Airways will begin direct flights to Auckland from December 3 and in the process put one of the world's longest non-stop flights onto its network map.

The 9,000 mile journey on a long-range Boeing 777-200LR jet will see passengers strapped in for around 17½ hours, eclipsing Qantas' Sydney-Dallas Airbus A380 trek by one hour.

Flight QR921 will depart Auckland at 2.40pm to reach Qatar's Doha hub at 10.20pm the same day – and trust us, it's going to be a long day at that!

The Doha-Auckland leg shaves an hour off the total travel time, with QR920 wheels-up from Doha at 2.10am for a 4.30am arrival into Auckland the following day.

The Oneworld member has been making a steady push into the Asia-Pacific region, with Sydney-Doha flights starting only last week and Adelaide seeing Qatar's Airbus A350 in May.

The Auckland route was announced at the ITB Berlin travel show overnight along with 13 other destinations across Europe, Africa and Asia.

Also read: Qatar Airways to reveal 'Super Business Class' seat in November

Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter: we're @AusBT