Qatar Airways To Expand On Three Continents

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker.

Qatar Airways recently announced route expansion on three continents together with a huge increase in capacity in Pakistan as part of the Doha-based carrier’s continued aggressive growth strategy.

The Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa will become the carrier’s 20^th destination on the African continent, launching on 18 September, followed a month later by Clark International Airport in the Philippines from 28 October.

Effective 1 March next year, Philadelphia will become the airline’s fifth US gateway. In addition, Qatar Airways is significantly increasing capacity to Pakistan where it currently operates 17 flights each week across four cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar.

Beginning next month from 1 June, Qatar Airways will step up frequency to Pakistan by 60 percent to 28 flights each week – Karachi up from daily to double daily; Lahore from four to seven flights a week; and Peshawar securing an additional flight to three services each week.

Qatar Airways stand at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM). The airline’s Dreamliner Business and Economy Class seats are a key feature on its exhibition stand at ATM this week providing travel professionals from around the world with an opportunity to sample the seats and amenities.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker announced the expansion during a press conference on the opening day of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) – the Middle East’s premier travel show – taking place in Dubai this week.

Mr. Al Baker also provided the latest developments at Hamad International Airport – Qatar’s brand new airport – scheduled to open this year.

Qatar Airways has launched four destinations this year – Gassim (Saudi Arabia), Najaf (Iraq), Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Chicago (USA). Aside from the newly-announced routes today, over the next few weeks and months, the network will grow further with Salalah (Oman on 22 May), Basra and Sulaymaniyah (Iraq on 3 June and 20 August respectively) and Chengdu (China on 3 September).

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 16 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 123 aircraft to 126 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas.