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Qatar Airways kicked off its service to Atlanta, the world’s most traveled airport.

At a ceremony welcoming the inaugural flight, Qatar Vice President – The Americas Gunter Saurwein joined Interim airport General Manager Roosevelt Council and Rossen Dimitrov, Qatar Senior Vice President, customer experience, in welcoming the airport’s 9th international carrier.

At the event held on Atlanta’s south cargo ramp, airport officials and media personnel toured the flagship aircraft. Airport Interim General Manager Roosevelt Council, who was appointed to his position two weeks ago, took in the sights and sounds of the A380 during his brief tour of the aircraft.

The aircraft parked at a de-ice pad where passengers were bused to the nearby concourse F. Qatar successfully deplaned the A380 in roughly 45 minutes upon arrival, but faced a near two hour delay for the departure flight. With no access to the A380 gate, Qatar resorted to moving the A380 to a remote cargo ramp to refuel and cater the aircraft.

Despite to logistical challenges, Qatar said it was prepared for the flight. “We knew that we had to deboard all 500 passengers with buses or people movers. We had enough lead time to prepare ourselves.” said Gunter Saurwein. “We had our best team on board; we brought some people in from other stations in the US. We obviously secured the turnaround.” he added.

“All of us have worked together collaboratively, all airlines in the airport including Qatar, to accommodate their inaugural flight and to ensure that everything is being done to ensure that they have a smooth arrival and departure.” said airport spokesperson Reese McCranie.

For future flights, Qatar will have access to gate F7 in Atlanta’s International concourse F. Flying the 777-200LR daily will not provide Qatar with the same challenges as the A380.

Qatar is the airport’s second new international carrier in recent weeks. On May 16th, Turkish Airlines began service to Istanbul, flying the 777-300ER. The addition of Qatar, Turkish and Virgin Atlantic in 2014 is a symbol of a push by the airport to diversify its international image.

In 2014, the city of Atlanta created the Air Service Incentive Program (ASIP) to draw international carriers to Atlanta. The program has been largely successful, with airlines including Virgin Atlantic and Emirates SkyCargo adding service to the airport. Speaking to Airways at an event in May, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the airline is still negotiating with the city over the ASIP program.

While Qatar may have been welcomed with open arms by airport officials, many in the Atlanta hub are challenging the addition of Qatar to the airport, citing a dismal human rights record. Noticeably absent from the event Wednesday was Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. Usually a regular at airport events, Reed has faced backlash over his attendance to a gala hosted by Qatar at Atlanta’s Fox Theater.

At the Atlanta launch gala, a handful of protestors picketed outside while Qatar executives and invited guests were treated with a private performance from Jennifer Lopez. Calling themselves “Alliance for Workers”, the protest group has littered the Atlanta metro with billboards and radio ads warning the public of Qatar Airways.

Atlanta is the 10th destination in the United States for Qatar and the latest in a wave of expansion for the growing Persian Gulf carrier. In addition to Atlanta, Qatar has begun service to Boston and Los Angeles in 2016.

United Airlines launched yesterday the world’s longest scheduled flight operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, when United flight UA1 took off from the airline’s hub at San Francisco International Airport bound to Singapore.

The new route also happens to be the longest scheduled flight operated by any U.S. carrier at 8,446 miles (13,590 kilometers), and ranks among the longest flights in the world currently in service.

“Our nonstop service between San Francisco and Singapore further enhances our already unprecedented trans-Pacific route network and builds an even stronger gateway to the Pacific from our San Francisco hub,” said Jim Compton, United’s vice chairman and chief revenue officer.

The new service is the sole existing direct link between the United States and Singapore, the first in almost three years, since the cancellation of Singapore Airlines’ direct flights to Los Angeles and Newark.

Singapore Airlines expects to resume its direct flights to the United States in 2019, as the carrier begins to take delivery of the ultra long-haul variant of the Airbus A350-900, dubbed the A350-90ULR.

Currently, the longest non-stop scheduled airline flight is Emirates flight EK448 from Dubai to Auckland, with a distance of 8,820 miles (14,193 km), beating the previous record from Qantas and its flight QF8 from Sydney to Dallas Ft. Worth, operated by an Airbus A380-800, with a distance of 8,577 miles (13,804 km).