It’s no secret that Qatar Airways is one of the world’s best airlines.

It was voted the number one airline on earth last year at the World Airline Awards—also known as the “Oscars of the aviation industry”—in 2017.

Qatar Airways also swept up major awards for the World's Best Business Class, the World's Best First Class Lounge and as the Best Airline in the Middle East. It was their fourth time to win, as it also won the award in 2015, 2012 and 2011.

All accolades aside, we wanted to look into just what makes this airline so great, so we put together some of the reasons behind how Qatar Airways is bigger, better, and altogether unconventional when compared to the rest.

1. It's the first airline to operate all new generation aircrafts in its fleet

While many airlines decided to operate either the Airbus A350, the Dreamliner or the Super Jumbo A380, the Doha based airline decided to make orders for all of them, being the first airliner to operate all 3 of them.

2. Qatar Airways is the first Gulf carrier to join an alliance

There must have been a lot of happy faces in 2012 at the OneWorld headquarters in New York when Qatar Airways announced to join the alliance.

In 1999 airlines such as Qantas, Air Berlin, American Airlines or Finnair teamed up to form the counterpart of Star Alliance and SkyTeam.

OneWorld consists of 15 full members and was also voted as best alliance by Skytrax for the third consecutive time.

3. Qatar Airways Group employs more than 45,000 staff across the globe

The group employs more than 45,000 staff worldwide, of which more than 32,000 are airline employees.

Headquartered in the Qatar Airways Tower in Doha, the airline operates a hub-and-spoke network, linking over 150 international destinations across Africa, Central Asia, Europe, Far East, South Asia, Middle East, North America, South America and Oceania from its base at Hamad International Airport, using a fleet of more than 180 aircraft.

So it’s no wonder!

4. The airline’s logo became extinct in the wild in 1972

Qatar Airways’ iconic purple Oryx logo, which happens to be the national animal of Qatar, was actually completely extinct in the wild in 1972.

It was reintroduced to the wild in 1982, with two herds; one from a zoo in Phoenix, Arizona and another from a “private collection" in Saudi Arabia.
 
The oryx is now only listed as “vulnerable”, as the effective program that kicked off twenty-six years ago in Oman saw the species spread across the Arabian Peninsula.

5. It set the record for the longest commercial flight in the world

Qatar Airways’ service from Doha to Auckland, is the longest flight on earth. The distance from Doha and the biggest city in New Zealand is about 14,535 kilometers (9,031 miles).
 
The previous record was held by Gulf rival Emirates, with the Dubai to Auckland service now the world's second longest flight at around 1,4199 kilometers.

The Auckland to Doha flight lasts around 17 hours and 40 minutes, and the Boeing 777-200 LR is the trusty aircraft that manages the job.

Image credits:

Cover image - Qatar Airways; inline image 1 - Qatar Airways, 2 - airwaysmag.com.