Qatar Airways Outlines Capacity Growth

Doha-based QATAR AIRWAYS has announced capacity increases to an array of destinations across its global network to support growing passenger demand. With the arrival of additional aircraft, the airline is continuing its aggressive expansion strategy boosting frequencies and introducing larger aircraft on many of its existing routes.

From the end of March an additional three weekly frequencies to Kuala Lumpur and two to the Tanzanian capital Dar Es Salaam will mean both destinations will be served double daily. In Europe, two further flights per week to Paris will increase weekly services to the French capital to 16, while two more rotations to Geneva (from May 2) and one more to Copenhagen will enable it to offer a daily schedule to each city. A widebody aircraft, in the form of the Airbus A330, will be introduced on Qatar Airways’ daily service to Bangalore, while three extra weekly flights will take place to the Omani capital Muscat, increasing weekly frequencies to 24.

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,” said Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways. “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.

Qatar Airways will also 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 Syrian city of Aleppo will become its 100th destination on April 6 when it begins a four-times weekly service from Doha and the airline has ambitious plans to expand its network to 120 destinations by 2013.

“There will be further route expansion announcements over the next few weeks,” confirmed Akbar Al Baker.