Airspace in the Middle East must have the flexibility to deal with the region’s rapid aviation growth, a subject that was highlighted in the Strategy Summit on the opening day of the inaugural Routes Middle East & Africa forum in Bahrain.
Qatar Airways’ CEO, Akbar Al Baker said that the airline would like to operate up to two passenger flights daily if there were no bilateral constraints, but the airline is thwarted by the Dutch government which refuses to give extra landing rights to the three major Gulf carriers.
The Doha-based airline will be launching the extra widebody aircraft on the route from October 1, 2015, alongside its existing Boeing 787 Dreamliner service on one of the two double-daily flights to Munich. From November 1, 2015, the second daily flight will also be operated by the A350.
Qatar Airways is the launch customer for the A350XWB, and currently remains the only airline to fly the world’s newest widebody aircraft. Following its introduction to service to Frankfurt in Germany, Singapore is only the second route for the type which is configured in a two-class arrangement seating 26 passengers in Business Class and 247 in Economy.
Qatar Airways and Royal Air Maroc have announced the launch of a strategic joint business agreement on services between the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Morocco.
The announced growth from Qatar Airways is sure to further anger the bosses of the three US majors – American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines – which are understood to remain disappointed at the level and speed of the US governments reaction to its claim of unfair state subsidies at the Gulf airlines.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
The arrival of the second A380 on the Doha- London route from July 1, 2015 reinforces Qatar Airways’ presence in the United Kingdom, with six flights a day between the two cities in addition to daily direct services from Doha to Edinburgh from May and double daily services to Manchester. The three-class aircraft will be operated on the ‘QR001/002’ flight.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
Currently, the airline operates a Boeing 787 on the route with 254 seats, though from August 1, 2015, Qatar Airways with replace the 787 with a 777, bringing the total capacity to 335 seats.
The mystic spice island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean will take the total number of destinations in the airline’s African network to 20 cities. The new destination is a popular island holiday spot for leisure travellers with its white sandy beaches, abundant wild life, rich culture and long history.
The carrier will offer a twice weekly service on the route from June 4, 2015, adding to its existing flights between Manila and Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Kuwait City, Kuwait and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Cebu Pacific also currently serves Dammam, Saudi Arabia, but that flight will terminate at the end of this month.
Qatar Airways first launched services to Pakistan twenty years ago when flights to Karachi commenced in 1995. It subsequently introduced direct links to Peshawar in 1995, Lahore in 1999 and Islamabad in 2004 and currently operates 45 flights a week into the country.
Air Arabia signed a strategic partnership with the Ras Al Khaimah Department of Civil Aviation to become the Emirate’s designated carrier for passenger services from Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in spring 2014 following the collapse of RAK Airways.
Africa continues to play an important part in Qatar Airways’ global network expansion strategy and the airline currently operates 140 flights per week to 19 African gateways.
Over a twelve-month period, preliminary data shows a growth rate of 5.1 percent year over year, with both international and domestic traffic posting strong growth rates of 5.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
The new ‘Pharma Express’ route will see an Airbus A330-200F operate between Brussels and Basel and then on to Doha on a twice weekly basis from January 28, 2015 with flights every Wednesday and Saturday.
During the inauguration ceremony for the Qatar Airways A350XWB, the GCEO of the airline, Mr Akbar Al Baker responded to questions including those relating to future routes for the A350.
With the addition of the city of Amsterdam, the total number of European destinations offered by Qatar Airways will grow to 34 – just under a quarter of the airline’s total route map. The carrier has witnessed rapid growth in its 17 years of operation and now operates a fleet of 146 aircraft to 146 business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.
With the additional flights, Qatar Airways will now have four early morning departures connecting via Doha to Europe and the Americas and four early evening departures connecting to flights in the Asia Pacific region. A mix of morning and evening flights means convenient connections for passengers from Salalah to key markets in the Qatar Airways’ route network of 146 destinations.
The frequency growth will see Qatar Airways boost capacity to Barcelona by 32.1 per cent in 2015, while total capacity into Spain will increase 30.4 per cent to almost 360,000 seats in each direction. According to MIDT data, the airline carried an estimated 458,000 passengers on its flights to and from Spain last year.
It appears that Qatar Airways will inaugurate scheduled passenger flights with its new Airbus A350XWB from January 15, 2015 on the Doha – Frankfurt route. The Gulf carrier, the launch customer for the next-generation airliner, has already revealed the German city would be the first destination for the aircraft, but it has yet to confirm when the flights will launch.
