Fisher, who works as the airline’s Vice President Fleet Planning, hopes to shave three hours off the current record of over 55 hours by completing the journey in only four sectors. 

His flight path begins in the early hours of Sunday morning in Shanghai, taking him to Auckland, Buenos Aires and Amsterdam before returning to the Chinese city in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Jan 23.

A self-proclaimed ‘aviation geek’ with a love of studying airline networks and schedules, Abu Dhabi-based Andrew is well placed to chart his journey and fulfill a dream he has been keen to attempt for over 20 years.

“It’s about time the job was done,” he said. “The planning has taken a long time, essentially to ensure the flight timings, routings and transits are kept as tight as possible and there is only a short window of opportunity for this to happen.”

The progress of Andrew’s record-breaking attempt can be followed on Twitter at @AndrewFisherNZ