Qatar Airways outlines expansion plans

Qatar Airways is to launch scheduled flights to Iraq on 23 May 2012 with Erbil in the north, followed two weeks later by services to the capital Baghdad on 7 June 2012. Each route will be served with four-flights-a-week non-stop from Doha. Effective 25 July, the airline will launch flights to Kilimanjaro, its second gateway in Tanzania. The daily services will operate via Nairobi. Then, beginning 15 August, Qatar Airways introduces its third African destination of 2012 with the launch of flights to the holiday centre of Mombasa – its second point in Kenya after the capital Nairobi. Each of the daily services will operate via the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam. In March, Qatar Airways began flights to Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali, the carrier‘s first African route of the year. And starting 3 October, Qatar Airways resumes operations to Myanmar following a four-year absence on the route, linking Doha with the capital Yangon. With political reform taking place in Myanmar at a rapid pace, interest in the beautiful South East Asian country has gathered momentum from both a business and tourism perspective. Thrice-weekly flights to Perth begin on 3 July – the carrier’s second Australian gateway after Melbourne. The Perth route goes daily in December at the peak of the holiday season. Qatar Airways has already launched flights to the European capital cities of Baku in Azerbaijan and Tbilisi in Georgia. Starting 9 May, the airline’s European expansion continues with daily flights to the Croatian capital Zagreb, operating via Budapest. Further route launches are planned to Belgrade in Serbia, the Finnish capital Helsinki and Zanzibar in Tanzania. In line with the airline’s strategy to increase frequency on existing routes to offer passengers more choice, Qatar Airways is also stepping up capacity to selected destinations in phases. In Asia, the Kuala Lumpur route will be served three-times daily from September, up from the recently-expanded capacity of 17 flights each week. In Europe, the Doha – Milan route will be upgraded to double daily this month from the current 11-a-week. In December, the Doha – Paris route will have an additional two flights taking frequency up to 18 services-a-week. In the Middle East, three routes will benefit from additional capacity. Kuwait last month saw the introduction of a new daily flight taking frequency up to 49 services each week. From June, an extra seven flights will be operated on the route taking capacity up to 56 services – eight daily round-trip flights every week. Also in June, the Doha – Abu Dhabi route will go up to 42 flights each week with the introduction of a new daily service offering in total six daily flights. Having introduced two extra weekly flights on the Doha – Cairo route last month to take frequency up to 11 each week, capacity will be stepped up further next month with the addition of one extra flight a week. And in Africa, more capacity will be introduced on the double daily Doha – Dar es Salaam route from next month. With seven services operating via Nairobi, these will become non-stop to Dar es Salaam effectively providing more seats direct to the Tanzanian capital. In March, Qatar Airways introduced frequency hikes to other destinations – namely London Heathrow, up from four to five flights-a-day; the Algerian capital Algiers from 7 to 11 services each week; Muscat in Oman from 24 to 31 flights each week; and the Indonesian capital of Jakarta from 7 to 10 services a week. “Today’s announcement reflects the importance Qatar Airways places on expanding its portfolio of destinations and frequency on existing routes to provide passengers with more choice, more flexibility and more travel options,” said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker on Tuesday. “We are entering new markets and strengthening our presence in established markets to provide a greater footprint. In particular, we are focusing on markets that are in need of extra capacity. The changing political landscape in Myanmar presents tremendous business opportunities and Qatar Airways is extremely delighted to be re-entering this wonderful destination that clearly will be one of the hottest markets in Asia for travellers from across our diverse international network. Iraq too provides many opportunities as infrastructure improvements taking place across the country prompt more international travel to support economic reform.” This year, Qatar Airways will take delivery of aproximately one new aircraft every 15 days.