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2 days ago

Qatar Airways adds 14 routes in global expansion

Qatar Airways is expanding its network to 14 new destinations.

Spread across four continents, the new routes will further expand the reach of the airline’s network, and will include the world’s longest commercial flight, between Doha and Auckland, New Zealand.

Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker announced: “Qatar Airways prides itself on being a global connector, and most importantly, providing seamless and convenient connections for our customers, so that we remain their airline of choice.

“These new destinations are where our customers want to go, and where we see the most opportunity to provide a best-in-class experience at great value.

“We look forward to growing our network and welcoming new passengers to Qatar Airways.”

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Five new destinations in Europe will be added to the schedule.

The Italian city of Pisa, starting on August 2nd with daily non-stop A320-family service from Doha, will be the fourth Italian destination for Qatar Airways, joining Venice, Rome and Milan.

Service to Sarajevo (Bosnia) will start on September 7th, with three flights per week on A320-family aircraft.

Daily non-stop flights from Doha to Helsinki (Finland) will start on October 10th, offering new connections between oneworld hubs.

Three times weekly service between Doha and Skopje (Macedonia) in November.

Both new cities will be served with A320-family aircraft.

Qatar Airways will return to Nice (France) by summer 2017, with five flights per week with wide-body aircraft.

Qatar Airways will also begin services to six new destinations in Africa.

Marrakech (Morocco) will begin in July 7th, three times per week, from Doha on the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Four flights per week between Doha and Windhoek (Namibia) will begin on September 28th.

Daily scheduled service to the Seychelles will resume on December 12th.

In January, Qatar Airways will offer three flights per week from Doha to Douala (Cameroon) and Libreville (Gabon) utilising one aircraft.

Non-stop service, three times weekly from Doha to Lusaka (Zambia) will begin by summer 2017.

In the South West Pacific and south-east Asia Qatar has confirmed daily service to Auckland.

Qatar Airways’ first route to New Zealand, and what will be the world’s longest flight, will begin on December 3rd.

Qatar Airways will use the Boeing 777 aircraft for this route.

Just in time for the winter break Qatar Airways will begin four flights per week to Krabi (Thailand) on December 6th and three flights per week to Chiang Mai (Thailand) also in December, enhancing overall connectivity to Thailand through four gateways.

Qatar Airways currently flies to Bangkok and Phuket.

The introduction of the new destinations comes two years after the opening of Qatar Airways’ hub, Hamad International Airport.

The addition of new routes has also consistently taken place in parallel with the growth plans of the Qatar Airways fleet.

As the global launch customer of the Airbus A350 and the Middle East launch customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, introducing next-generation aircraft is of key importance to the overall growth strategy.

On average the airline receives a new aircraft once every ten days, and the average age of the fleet is less than four years.