Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways (القطرية) is an airline based in Doha, Qatar. It operates a hub and spoke network based on Doha, linking 70 international destinations. Its main base is Doha International Airport (DOH). It is among the fastest growing airlines and one of the 5 airlines that have gained the "five star airline" status from Skytrax.

Qatar Airways is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

Code Data

IATA Code: QR
ICAO Code: QTR

History

The airline was established on 22 November 1993 and started operations on 20 January 1994. It was originally owned by members of the state's royal family but was relaunched in April 1997 by a new management team headed by Akbar Al Baker (Chief Executive). The airline is owned by the government of Qatar (50%) and private investors (50%).

Qatar Airways Privilege Club is the airlines Frequent Flyer Programme with the highest earn rate in the world. Qatar Airways is one of the only five airlines that have achieved the five star status by an independent airline evaluation firm, Skytrax.

Qatar Airways is the official airline for the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar on 1-15 December 2006.

New livery

First aircraft in the new livery is an A340-600, that will be received by the airline from Airbus , in May 2006.

Destinations

See full article: Qatar Airways destinations

Services

The latest addition on the airline's network is Hong Kong, which was launched on March 26 2006. Nagpur will also be added, bringing the number of destinations to India served by the airline to six.

The airline operates daily flights to Hong Kong using its Airbus A330-200 and three of the flights per week will be extended to Seoul, South Korea. The airline has added an additional weekly flight to Shanghai, bringing the number of flights to the Chinese commercial capital to four per week. Qatar Airways has increased its London Heathrow service from twice daily to three times daily since March 26, 2006.

Qatar Airways recently announced that it plans to make its first foray into the North American market in late 2006 with direct non-stop scheduled flights to the United States using new A340-600 HGW aircraft. Moreover, the airline announced a new livery change which would be introduced to the A340-600 HGW aircraft and gradually applied to the existing fleet over a period of 12 months.

The airline has recently announced that they will increase frequencies to several destinations and has already launched nonstop flights to Madrid, replacing the Rome-Madrid sector. The Doha-Berlin (TXL) flights will soon be upgraded to widebody aircraft instead of the current A319LR with an increase in weekly frequency. Qatar Airways also hinted at direct Doha-Sao Paulo, Brazil direct flights starting sometime within the next 18 months.

Qatar Airways applied to the Australian Government to fly Daily from Doha to Sydney and Melbourne but this was rejected in late May.

Destinations set to be increased in terms of frequencies:

Algiers - Increase from 3 to 4 weekly flights
Athens - Increase from 5 to 7 weekly flights
Bangkok - Increase from 11 to 14 weekly flights, from June 2006,

It will use a mix of Airbus A330-200 and Airbus A330-300 for the summer season switching to all Airbus A330-200 from the winter season on November 2006 as published in the current schedules.

Berlin - Increase in frequency (unspecified) using widebody aircraft
Frankfurt - Increase from 7 to 9 weekly flights (10 next winter),from an A300-600 to an A330-200 on June 2006.
London Heathrow- Increase from 14 to 21 weekly flights. It increased the frequency of flights Doha-London Heathrow from 2 to 3 a day with the addition of a new Airbus 330-300 flight departing Doha at 0750 and Heathrow at 1505.In addition, on of the other 2 flights will upgrade from an Airbus 330-300 to an Airbus 340-600 on August 2006 and the 3rd flight will upgrade from An Airbus 330 to an Airbus 340-600 five a week from September 2006.
Madrid - Flights via Rome-Fiumicino will now fly non-stop 3 weekly
Manchester - Increase from 4 to 7 weekly flights
Osaka - Increase from 4 to 5 weekly flights (6 next winter)
Paris - Increase from 7 to 10 weekly flights (14 next winter)
Tunis - Increase from 3 to 4 weekly flights

It will upgrade equipment as follows :

Daily Doha-Milan Malpensa: from an Airbus 300-600 to an Airbus 330-200 on August 2006. The flight is operated 4x a week on Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday.
Daily Doha-Moscow Domodedovo: from an Airbus 320 to an Airbus 300-600 on August 2006. The flight is operated 5x a week on Monday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Sunday.

It will increase the frequency on its Doha-Madrid route from 3 to 4 flights a week from Nov 1st,2006. It currently operates flights on Monday/Friday/Sunday and will add a Wednesday flight, all operated with Airbus 300-600R.

Fleet

Current Fleet

The Qatar Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2006):

Type	Number	Seats	Notes
Airbus A310-600R	9
Airbus A300-600RF	1
Airbus A319-100LR	2
Airbus A319-100CJ	1
Airbus A320-200	11
Airbus A321-200	2
Airbus A330-200	14 (2 on order)
Airbus A330-300	7 (2 on order)
Airbus A340-600	(4 on order)
Airbus A350	(60 on order)
Airbus A380	(2 on order)
Boeing 777	(20 on order)

Qatar Airways also has orders for 4 Airbus A340-600 High Gross Weight (HGW) aircraft. The new livery of Qatar Airways will be unveiled on this batch of aircraft.

In additon to the 2 Airbus A380, Qatar Airways has options on 2 more. It plans to start services with the A380 in 2009 on its route to London (ref: Airliner World, March 2005).

At the 2005 Paris Air Show, Qatar Airways ordered 60 Airbus A350's and 20 Boeing 777s for a combined total of $15.2 billion. Qatar Airways has become the largest customer to date for the yet to be launched A350 and the first Middle East client. The first A350 will be delivered in 2010, with all 60 aircraft in service by 2015. The Boeing 777s will be delivered between 2007 and 2010 (ref: Air International, July 2005).

The average age of the Qatar Airways fleet is 5.5 years (at April 2006)

Incidents

An Airbus 330-200 bound for Doha (Flight QR889) suffered a double engine flameout on approach into Shanghai on Jun 1, 2006 after a flight from Doha. Pilots managed to restart both engines and made an emergency landing at Pu Dong International. The aircraft involved, registered A7-ACJ, was the newest A330 and had just been delivered. See GE investigates double CF6-80 flame-out on Qatar A330-200 into Shanghai

External links

Airlines of Qatar

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