Qatar Airways' delays its bid for operating the world's longest flight.

Qatar Airways announced this week it is delaying its latest contender for the title of "world's longest flight": a 9,034-mile flight from Doha, Qatar, to Auckland, New Zealand.

The 18.5-hour flight was supposed to debut Dec. 3, however the airline is pushing the route to early 2017 because of an Airbus A350 delivery delay. 

The Doha-Auckland route will be operated with Boeing 777-LRs, of which the airline has nine. Until Qatar gets the A350s from Airbus, the 777s are needed for service on other routes.

Airbus announced earlier this year that deliveries of the A350 would be delayed for both Qatar and Cathay Pacific.

"The next A350 XWB deliveries are imminent, and our delivery target of at least 50 A350s in 2016 remains unchanged," a spokesperson for Airbus toldMashable. "We continue to work closely with our customers to deliver aircraft with which they are completely satisfied."

The current longest flight, both by distance and time, is an 8,819-mile Emirates flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Dubai, UAE.

Other airlines eyeing the title of world's longest flight are Singapore Airlines, with a 19-hour, 9,521 mile flight from Singapore to New York, and Qantas with an 18-hour, 8,991 mile journey from Perth, Australia, to London.