Melbourne was the original home for Qatar Airways in Australia, with the airline subsequently adding services to Perth, Sydney and Adelaide. With the growth from the original 777-200LR to the A380, the airline has actually doubled its daily capacity since the start of the route while retaining just the single flight rotation.
The eight ‘new’ markets comprise Canberra, the airline’s fifth destination in Australia; Dublin, Ireland; Las Vegas, the airline’s eleventh destination in the United States; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Medan’s Kualanamu International Airport, the airline’s third destination in Indonesia; and Tabuk and Yanbu, its ninth and tenth destinations in Saudi Arabia.
As Airbus celebrates the milestone inaugural test flight of the new A350-1000, the largest variant of the A350XWB family, Routesonline looks at approaching two years of commercial operations with the smaller A350-900.
Qatar Airways never misses the opportunity to make a major announcement at any trade show that it attends. However, this is normally through major fleet orders at the big airshows and network expansion at business events not major investments in international airlines.
The arrival of Qatar Airways would be a major development for Las Vegas, and the suggested January 2017 launch could have the route established ahead of next year’s Routes Americas forum which takes place the The Aria Resort and Casino Convention Facility in Sin City between February 14 and 16, 2017.
The launch of flights to Chiang Mai comes at a time when Qatar Airways is rapidly expanding its network and will inaugurate 14 new destinations on its route map throughout 2016 and into early 2017, including a number of new markets in Africa.
The Gulf carrier will be able to hold claim to the world’s longest commercial flight, as well as beginning new services in Europe, Africa and South West Pacific / Southeast Asia
Emirates cannot hold claim to the world’s longest route – a service from their hub in Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand – for much longer. Fellow Gulf carrier, Qatar Airways have announced their service from Doha to Auckland to begin in December.
The new service will provide 245,000 additional seats per year and is expected to generate an estimated 3,000 jobs in New South Wales and contribute more than AUD$240 million to the local economy. The new service will also provide 84 tonnes of cargo capacity per week in and out of the New South Wales (NSW) capital.
The Gulf carrier is both the world’s strongest and most valuable brand, with an increase of 17 percent from 2015. Emirates brand value is weighted at $7,743 million.
The current longest route in the world is the Qantas operation between Sydney and Dallas Fort Worth. For a long time, Singapore Airlines had held the position of operating the world's longest scheduled flight, however, the closure of its non-stop links from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York after its retirement of its Airbus A340-500 fleet earlier this decade, has meant the Pacific connection of Qantas Airways between Sydney and Dallas, a 16 hour 55 minute, 8,500+ mile journey, took over as the longest commercial passenger route.
ASM’s consultancy expertise, working with the close and invaluable support from the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal, has enabled Turkish Airlines, Ethiopia Airlines and Qatar Airways to grow their global networks and introduce new direct routes to Durban.
The new non-stop link between Doha and Yerevan will commence from May 15, 2016 with a four times weekly service being flown using an Airbus A320 configured in a two-class arrangement with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class. The new route is understood have been facilitated by Qatar Airways’ network expansion across the US, a market which has strong links back into Armenia, but with limited current connectivity.
Saudi Arabia’s continued economic diversification, growth of the private sector and increasing popularity as a destination for the Middle East MICE industry is directly translating into increased demand for business travel within the region and Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways aim to be well-positioned to boost their positions in this market.
The first new Pharma Express route commenced on November 10, 2015 and operates from Mumbai via Ahmedabad to Doha on Tuesdays and Fridays. The second new Pharma Express route commenced on November 11, 2015 and operates from Hyderabad to Doha on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Both flights will offer connectivity across Qatar Airways’ extensive global network.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) highlighted the importance of overcoming airspace congestion, taking advantage of innovations with the New Distribution Capability (NDC) and aligning with the global industry strategy for reducing aviation’s climate change impact for the further successful development of aviation in the Middle East.
After Delta recently reduced service between the world’s busiest airport and the largest international airport, the carrier has now confirmed it will end the route from February 11, 2016. It said the Boeing 777 used on this city pair will be redeployed to other Transatlantic markets where it can “compete on a level playing field that’s not distorted by subsidised state-owned airlines”.
The eight times weekly link will be flown using a 254-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and will increase the Gulf carrier’s offering between Doha and the UK to 71 flights per week, further strengthening connections to Africa, Asia and beyond.
Qatar Airways next year celebrates the tenth anniversary of its debut in the Hong Kong market having first launched flights from Doha in March 2006. The airline previously served the Doha – Hong Kong route on a twice daily basis introducing a second rotation in December 2011 and second daily service in September 2012, but scaled-back its own operations in 2014 at the time of Cathay Pacific’s entry to the market.
The new Adelaide route will be flown using Qatar Airways’ new Airbus A350-900 and will boost its Australian capacity to 28 flights a week. The airline’s Gulf rival, Emirates Airline already serves Adelaide from Dubai International Airport with flights since November 2012; now operating daily using a Boeing 777-300ER.
The Qatari and Australian governments this month announced they had expanded the current bilaterals between the countries, allowing 50 per cent more flights on the Australia-Qatar route with immediate effect. The agreement will allow for up to 21 flights each week, each way, for airlines of both countries to the major gateways of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
Gulf carrier Qatar Airways confirmed in February this year that it would introduce flights to this year’s World Routes host city as part of an expansion of its network in South Africa. The four times weekly service, as an extension of an expanded schedule between Doha and Johannesburg, will be launched from December 17, 2015, just three months after World Routes, providing an important new hub connection offering to the coastal city.
The latest update of the airline’s inventory for the winter 2015 schedule shows that Qatar Airways will introduce an additional two weekly flights (Fridays and Sundays) on the route from December 1, 2015, while a further weekly rotation (on Tuesdays) will be added from December 15, 2015.
The oneworld alliance member will reinstate its flights to Nagpur from December 1, 2015 with a daily Airbus A320 rotation. The resumption of flights to Nagpur later this year will bring its total weekly passenger flights from 95 to 102 across 13 cities in India.
The Partnership for Open and Fair Skies issued a statement earlier this week with supporting document which it claims shows that the Abu Dhabi-based airline received a cash injection of $2.5 billion in 2014 from the government.
