Qatar Airways has announced 14 new routes across Europe, Africa and Asia, including Doha – Auckland, which it says will be the world’s longest flight when launched.
The network expansion was announced at the ITB Berlin international travel fair, where Qatar unveiled services to Bosnia, Cameroon, Finland, France, Gabon, Italy, Macedonia, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Thailand and Zambia.
Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker says: “Qatar Airways prides itself on being a global connector, and most importantly, providing seamless and convenient connections for our customers, so that we remain their airline of choice.”
For Europe, Qatar will start daily Airbus A320 services to Pisa, Italy, on 2 August and three times a week A320 flights to Sarajevo, Bosnia, on 7 September. It will also start daily A320 flights to Finland’s capital, Helsinki on 10 October and three times a week to Skopje, Macedonia in November. Qatar will also start flying to Nice, France, five times a week from summer 2017 using a wide-body aircraft.
Africa will get three times a week Boeing 787 Dreamliner services to Marrakech, Morocco from July, and Windhoek in Namibia will get four weekly flights from 28 September. Qatar will resume daily services to the Seychelles from 12 December, and Douala in Cameroon and Libreville in Gabon will be connected with one aircraft from January. Zambia’s capital, Lusaka will receive three times a week services by the summer of 2017.
For Asia Pacific, Qatar Airways will start daily Boeing 777 flights to Auckland from 3 December, which it says will be the longest non-stop flight. Thailand will receive extra flights, with four flights a week to Krabi and three weekly services to Chiang Mai from December.