Route development to improve connectivity via carrier’s Doha hub
Kuala Lumpur and Dar Es Salaam routes go double daily
Geneva, Copenhagen, Paris and Muscat to get extra services
Daily services to Barcelona and Bengalaru upgraded to Airbus A330
February 2011, Doha, Qatar – Qatar Airways has announced a host of network capacity increases – including boosting flights on its Kuala Lumpur route to twice daily – to be phased in from March 1.
The Doha-based carrier will implement several network improvements across its global route map for the start of its winter programme.
An extra three weekly services from Kuala Lumpur will be added from March 27, connecting the Malaysian capital to Doha twice a day.
This year, Qatar Airways marks its 10th year of operations in Malaysia. As one of the airline’s most popular and oldest routes in South East Asia, the airline’s Kuala Lumpur route has continually grown since the airline launched services in 2001.
The increased services will connect business leaders from the Middle East keen to expand trade in Malaysia and will also provide leisure and business travelers in Malaysia with seamless connections to exotic locations in Europe and South America that were harder to access like Nice and Sao Paulo.
With daily, non-stop flights from Doha to Sao Paulo, Malaysian sports fans will enjoy convenient, non-stop links from Doha to the next FIFA World Cup being staged in Brazil in 2014.
Expanding into Europe and Beyond
This comes as part of Qatar Airways’ expansion plans connecting Asia to Europe through Doha.
In Europe, where Qatar Airways is concentrating much of its expansion over the next two months with new routes to Bucharest and Budapest this week, Brussels by the end of January and Stuttgart in March, the airline has also earmarked a number of capacity increases to and from existing destinations in its network.
The double daily Paris route will rise to 16 weekly services with an extra two flights a week, while Geneva capacity will increase to daily following the introduction of two new weekly flights.
News of the European additions follows the recent announcement that Qatar Airways’ Copenhagen route will go daily with one extra flight a week.
Qatar Airways route expansion also includes flights in the Gulf with three extra weekly services to the Omani capital Muscat with capacity rising to 24 flights each week and two extra services to the Tanzanian capital, Dar Es Salaam which will take frequency up to twice a day.
Larger aircraft for increased capacity
In addition to increased services to a host of destinations in Qatar Airways’ global network, daily services from Doha to Barcelona and to Bengaluru (Bangalore) in southern India will be upgraded from a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft to a wide-body A330.
Growing international passenger demand from Asia and the Middle East and additional aircraft joining the fleet have prompted the capacity hike, part of the Doha-based airline’s aggressive expansion strategy to offer consumers more choice.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “These capacity increases yet again demonstrate Qatar Airways’ commitment to building our route profiles in line with our strategy to offer passengers more travel options.
“With an average of more than one new aircraft being introduced into the fleet every month, Qatar Airways is looking to deploy the new capacity on existing routes while, at the same time launch new routes to join our ever-growing international network.”
“From Europe and Africa to the Middle East and Asia, our network will see more capacity, improved schedules and, more importantly, more choice for our large passenger base and new clientele. There will be further route expansion announcements over the next few weeks.”
All the extra flights operate non-stop from Qatar Airways’ Doha hub, offering excellent connections to and from key feeder markets.
Highlights of the expansion programme are:
Kuala Lumpur - 11 flights a week to 14 (double daily) from March 27
Dar Es Salaam - 12 flights a week to 14 (double daily), from March 27
Paris - 14 flights a week to 16 from March 27
Geneva - 5 flights a week to 7 (daily), effective May 2
Barcelona - Narrow-body aircraft replaced with Airbus A330, from March 27
Copenhagen - 6 to 7 flights a week (daily), from March 27
Muscat - 21 flights a week to 24, from March 27
Bengaluru - Narrow-body aircraft replaced with Airbus A330, from March 1
Qatar Airways will begin flights to the Romanian capital Bucharest and the Hungarian capital
Budapest on January 17; Belgium’s capital Brussels on January 31; and Germany’s car
manufacturing centre of Stuttgart on March 6.
The airline launches its 100th destination on April 6 with four flights a week to the Syrian city of Aleppo.
To make bookings or check schedules, visit www.qatarairways.com
Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of 94 aircraft from Doha to 97 cities across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America. The airline is continuing its aggressive expansion plan started in 1997 at the time of its relaunch. It plans to serve 120 key business and leisure destinations worldwide with a fleet of 120 aircraft by 2013.
