Qatar Airways: Creating global connectivity

The airline’s young fleet of sustainable aircraft has enabled it to continue flying throughout the pandemic and rapidly rebuild its global network to more than 650 weekly flights to over 85 destinations.

Qatar Airways continues to lead the industry in providing global connectivity by resuming flights to just over half the destinations it operated pre-COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, Qatar Airways network has never fallen below 30 destinations with continuous services to five continents. By mid-September, the national carrier of the State of Qatar will operate over 650 weekly flights to more than 85 destinations, providing more flexible travel options to more global destinations than any other airline.

During the month of September, the airline will resume flights to the following destinations:

• Houston (three weekly flights started 2 September increasing to four weekly from 15 September)
• Kathmandu (one weekly flight starting 5 September)
• Mogadishu (three weekly flights starting 6 September)
• Philadelphia (three weekly flights starting 16 September)
• Sialkot (three weekly flights started 1 September)

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are proud to be the leading global airline connecting passengers with the world, operating one of the youngest, most fuel-efficient and sustainable fleets to take people safely to where they need to be. The gradual rebuilding of our network has been focused on strengthening connections between our hub in Doha and key gateways around the world as well as major business and leisure destinations.

The resumption of flights to Philadelphia will provide seamless connections via our U.S. partners to several key domestic points such as Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Similarly, the increase in frequencies to Djibouti, Ho Chi Minh City, London and New York will provide further air freight capacity to these important trade and economic centres.

“The recovery of international travel will take time but returning to over 50 per cent of our pre-COVID-19 network is a significant milestone. Restoring passenger confidence is key, and we are proud to lead the industry by offering one of the most flexible and generous booking policies that enables customers to plan their travel with confidence. By continuing to fly during the pandemic while others stopped, we have gained the trust of passengers as an airline they can rely on.

We have taken more international passengers home than any other airline during this pandemic and as entry restrictions ease and we resume more of our pre-COVID-19 network, we remain focused on our fundamental mission of carrying passengers across the globe safely and reliably. There are still millions of people who have not seen their friends and families for months and our growing network allows them to travel home or take a trip to see loved ones.

With a young fleet of fuel-efficient aircraft such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 operating the majority of the current network, Qatar Airways continues to offer passengers a sustainable solution for their travel plans.

“We also remain in close contact with Australian authorities regarding flight restrictions as ensuring the ongoing repatriation of passengers to the country is becoming increasingly challenging. Despite the restrictions on passengers allowed to be carried into the country, we continue to fulfil our mission to facilitate ongoing repatriation for as many people as possible by operating a robust Australian network to five cities, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne (currently no inbound passengers permitted), Perth and Sydney, offering more flights than any other international airline.

While other airlines grounded operations, we maintained our flights, carrying almost 40% of all international travellers to and from Australia between April and June 2020, helping to take over 180,000 Australian and international travellers home since the start of the crisis. These flights have also helped maintain vital supply chains for Australian businesses with our airline carrying over 15,000 tonnes of Australian goods since 1 March 2020.”

Qatar Airways Vice President Pacific, Thomas Scruby spoke in the panel discussion ‘Flying with Covid: How the aviation industry is adapting to keep travellers flying high’ as part of the Luxperience virtual event. Click to rediscover this session and many more from the 2020 event!