Qatar expands routes to Houston

Qatar Airways is today rolling out its plans for its first new route of 2009 - Doha to Houston.

The Qatari airline is meeting leaders from the travel trade in the UAE and other gulf states to outline its plans for the new non-stop service which starts daily on March 30 using Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

"The main reason is that we want to be linking oil and energy business. Houston is the largest natural oil resource in the US," says Ali Abdul Khaliq, the airline’s regional manager for Arabian peninsula and Iran.

The non-stop service will fly three times daily and Khaliq says this route would be “the longest in the world with a flight of 17 hours,” with connecting flights from-to Kuwait.

This service will complement its New York and Washington DC routes launched in mid-2007. Presently the airline serves 83 destinations worldwide.