Qatar Airways: Additional Flights and Aircraft Upgrades

The airline says its fleet of modern, fuel-efficient aircraft has enabled it to continue flying throughout the pandemic and lead the industry in offering global connectivity with more than 700 weekly flights to over 100 destinations.

According to a statement by Qatar Airways, the airline will increase services and upgrade aircraft to several destinations, including Cape Town (adding peak season capacity with up to daily flights starting 16 December); Durban (adding peak season capacity with up to three weekly flights starting 18 December); Maldives (increased to triple daily flights between 17 December and 10 January); Maputo (adding peak season capacity with up to three weekly flights via Durban starting 18 December); Phuket (flights starting 4 December, increasing to three weekly from 18 December); Seychelles (three weekly flights starting 15 December); and Zanzibar (adding peak season capacity flying the A350-900 from 1 December).

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, pointed out that “as travel restrictions ease, we are starting to see the initial green shoots of the recovery of international leisure travel. Just as it was our priority to keep flying during the early months of this year to help take people home, it is equally as important to us now to provide more flexible options to passengers and agents to plan travel for the upcoming winter break. This is why we are increasing capacity to many key holiday destinations such as Cape Town, Maldives, Seychelles, and Zanzibar. With over 700 weekly flights to more than 100 destinations across the globe and hundreds of onwards connections through our partners, passengers can rely on Qatar Airways to offer them more flexible options to travel where they want to, whenever they want.”

The statement adds that Qatar Airways’ strategic investment in a variety of fuel-efficient, twin-engine aircraft, including the largest fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft, has enabled it to continue flying throughout this crisis and perfectly positions it to lead the sustainable recovery of international travel. The airline recently took delivery of three new state-of-the-art Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, increasing its total A350 fleet to 52 with an average age of just 2.6 years. Due to COVID-19’s impact on travel demand, the airline has grounded its fleet of Airbus A380s as it is not environmentally justifiable to operate such a large, four-engine aircraft in the current market. Qatar Airways has also recently launched a new program that enables passengers to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions associated with their journey at the point of booking.