1. Qatar Airways said on Sunday it would receive 13 new Airbus aircraft this year to expand its operations to 12 more cities.
2. Qatar Airways now has a 24-plane all-Airbus fleet which it plans to boost to 56 by 2008. Planes on order include 10 A330-200 and seven A330-300. The airline also has an option for three A330-200, four A330-300, two A380-800 and eight A340-600 aircraft.
3. "In June, we will begin flights to Luxor in Egypt and to Istanbul in Turkey. The following month, in July, we will begin a new service to Zurich in Switzerland. In November we will begin flights to Kabul in Afghanistan," he said.
Baker said the carrier was one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.
4. On Saturday, Qatar awarded U.S. firm Bechtel a $2.5 billion contract to design and build a new international airport as part of its plans to boost tourism. Baker said Qatar Airways planned to add 12 more destinations to extend its operations to 60 cities by the year-end, compared with 48 at present.
Udo From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (9 years 4 months 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 2799 times:
It's quite interesting to see them expanding into markets currently not served by Emirates, such as Luxor and Kabul.
Though Kabul is still a dangerous destination it might become a runner. There will definitely be a growing demand for Kabul in the coming years. And QR can offer good connections via DOH, especially from Europe.
Behramjee From Canada, joined Aug 2003, 4447 posts, RR: 43 Reply 2, posted (9 years 4 months 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 2774 times:
Theyre probably flying to KABUL because no one else flies scheduled flights there so they will have the monopoly + DOHA is now a huge US Military base in the GULF handling Afghani and Iraqi operations + a lot of air cargo demand for KABUL flights due to Intl aid and agencies operating in the country whom are trying to rebuild it...so QR wants all of this lucurative business.
As far as LUXOR goes, Kuwait Airways flies there regularly as its a very popular Egyptian resort city with the Arab world + the Europeans that live in the Middle East so 3 times a week A 320s on this route shall prove enough.
Wedgetail737 From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 5534 posts, RR: 5 Reply 3, posted (9 years 4 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 2587 times:
It would be nice if Qatar Airways would get authority to fly to JFK. I think the US lacks decent Middle East-based airlines.
Swissgabe From Switzerland, joined Jan 2000, 5265 posts, RR: 37 Reply 7, posted (9 years 3 months 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 2099 times:
Yegbey01
I fully agree, that RAM is a North African carrier and not a Middle Eastern but I'm sure, RAM carries some Middle Eastern pax since AT has some flights to the Middle East as well (even codeshare with some Middle Eastern carriers) and they feed their CMN-JFK flight with those pax.
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