Qatar Airways has celebrated the launch of its new route to Ethiopia’s capital city Addis Ababa by providing school uniforms and books for school-age children participating in the Our Father’s Kitchen programme.  
Our Father’s Kitchen is a feeding programme which provides daily meals for approximately 216 underprivileged children in three different neighbourhoods of the Addis Ababa community.
“At Qatar Airways we have a strong sense of corporate social responsibility and that is why we always endeavour to lend a helping hand in the communities that we serve in,” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said.  
“Ethiopia is one of the driving forces behind the change which is taking place in the African economy, hence opening a new route to Addis Ababa makes a great deal of business sense,” he said.  
“However, if we are going to do business here it is important to us that we become an active member of the community. Partnering with ‘Our Father’s Kitchen’ will enable us to make a difference, even if in a small way.”
There is a growing Ethiopian population living and working in Qatar and the Middle East. There is also a significant diaspora of Ethiopians in the US, expecting to benefit from the new Doha-Addis Ababa service and contribute strong business and leisure traffic within Qatar Airways’ network.
With three-flights-a-week on the route, Qatar Airways offers an excellent alternative gateway with great connections via Doha to an exciting range of business and leisure destinations across North and South America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific. Popular destinations include Washington DC, New York, Houston, Chicago, Montreal, London and Dubai.
The Doha-Addis Ababa route is served with an Airbus A320 featuring up to 12 seats in Business Class and up to 132 seats in Economy. The aircraft offers seatback TV screens providing all passengers with the next generation interactive onboard entertainment system featuring a choice of more than 800 audio and video on demand options.
Over the next few months, the Qatar Airways network will expand with the addition of further destinations - Ta’if, Saudi Arabia (October 2), Clark International Airport, the Philippines (October 27) and Philadelphia, USA (April 2, 2014).