Qatar Airways is continuing its growth and expansion plans and has announced its newest destination – Canberra, which is the national carriers’ fifth in Australia.
The launch of Canberra service will be in 2018, Qatar Airways said yesterday.
The launch follows a year of success and announcements from the ‘World’s Best Airline’, including the launch of a brand new business class offering, the announcement of some 26 new destinations for 2017/2018, “impressive” financial profits released in June, a huge sponsorship agreement with FIFA and ongoing billion-dollar-aircraft orders.
At a time when many other global airlines are standing still, Qatar Airways has continued to elevate industry expectations, innovate the consumer experience and expand its global network.
“The recent GCC blockade has had little impact on the national carrier of the State of Qatar thanks to a robust growth strategy, varied investment portfolio and its consistent award-winning customer experience,” Qatar Airways said.
“The intelligent redeployment of aircraft and crew to partner airlines such as British Airways and Royal Air Maroc ensures that planes do not idle, whilst reduced operational costs from the 18 affected destinations have helped to balance any perceived financial impact,” the airline said.
Meanwhile, the airline has continued its robust expansion plans, launching service to exciting new destinations including Nice, France in July and Dublin, Ireland in June.
Qatar Airways will continue its expansion into Eastern Europe in August, with the launch of direct service to Prague, Czech Republic and Kyiv, Ukraine. It will also commence service to Sohar, the airline’s third destination in Oman.
Increased frequencies on routes such as Moscow, Russia, and Colombo, all counteract the currently suspended GCC routes.
Qatar Airways Cargo has also fared well during the past few months with increased demand for transporting fresh produce and livestock to Qatar.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said, “This announcement is yet another proud moment for Qatar Airways and another milestone in our increasing expansion plans. We are delighted to finally bring our award-winning service to Canberra in 2018, our ninth year of operation in Australia. As Australia’s capital city, Canberra is an important addition to our global route map and further boosts the existing strong ties between Australia and Qatar. We are confident our highly-acclaimed product will appeal greatly to government, business and leisure travellers alike and we look forward to welcoming our passengers on board very soon.”
“I am proud to say that in spite of the current situation, we continue to provide our award-winning, five-star service to all our passengers. We are carrying forward our robust expansion plans, and will continue to grow and expand to exciting new destinations across the globe.
With Canberra, the airline will be the first international carrier to offer Australia’s capital city daily scheduled flights to Doha via Sydney. Qatar Airways’ second-daily Sydney flight will make its way on to Canberra commencing February 2018. Return flights will be on a Canberra-Sydney-Doha routing.
Canberra flights will be served by a 358-seater Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
Qatar Airways inaugurated its first daily Sydney flight on March 1, 2016 with “great success”, upgrading it to the superjumbo A380 just six months after the airline’s Sydney launch.
Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron said the arrival of Qatar Airways was an “exciting” development in the “fulfilment of a major goal”.
“We have had a long-held dream that we could connect Canberra with the rest of the world. The beginning of the Qatar Airways service in February provides seamless access to the major international hub of Doha, and a stepping off point for the Middle East, Europe and points beyond.
“We welcome Qatar Airways’ strong support for Canberra and the people living in our wider region of around 1mn people”.
Qatar Airways’ Canberra flights will be served by a 358-seater Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
