Qatar Airways to add new routes

Qatar Airways has announced that it will be adding Singapore, Vienna and Cebu in the Southern Philippines to its worldwide route network later this year, as it prepares to begin new services to Shanghai, Seoul and Tripoli.

Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker made the announcement on the eve of the annual meeting of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) in Muscat.
“As one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, we are very excited about adding these six important services to our route network. With the addition of these new destinations we will be flying to 48 destinations worldwide,” Al Baker said.

“Having previously announced Shanghai and Seoul as new destinations in the Far East, and Tripoli in Libya, we are very proud to be able to add a further three destinations in such a short space of time.
“Vienna will be our ninth destination in Europe, and with Cebu and Singapore we will be reaching eight destinations in the Far East,” he said.

The thrice-weekly services to Vienna, via Munich, will start on November 19, 2003. The Cebu flight, via Singapore, will start on December 10, 2003. The Shanghai and Seoul service started on October 28, 2003, with Tripoli being effective from November 9, 2003. All these services are scheduled for three weekly departures.

“The imperial city of Vienna is full of history and attracts thousands of business travellers and tourists every day. We are very happy to offer our unique premier service to the people of Austria,” Al Baker stated.
“Similarly, Singapore is a thriving centre for commerce and industry, as well as a popular tourist attraction.

With more and more people wanting to fly Qatar Airways, we are very pleased to be able to add this great city to our extensive network.
“By adding a further destination within the Philippines, we can provide our superior service to the business and tourist clientele who wish to go to this popular province and use Cebu’s strategic location as a stepping stone to other islands in the region.

As part of its aggressive growth strategy, Qatar Airways has recently signed a $5.1 billion order for 34 more additional Airbus aircraft in a deal that will increase the fleet to 52 by 2008.

Qatar Airways is also one of the launch customers for the A380 ‘super jumbo’ and will take delivery of two of the aircraft in 2007.
It has recently added Rome and Moscow to its network of destinations.