Tag Archives: Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways’ first daily regularly-scheduled Airbus A350 service to London Heathrow arrived in the United Kingdom on Sunday October 30, as the airline introduced the state-of-the-art aircraft on the route, complementing the existing ‘best of fleet’ on its six daily flights from Hamad International Airport. To mark the occasion Qatar Airways followers on social media were able to follow a live tour of the interior cabin of the A350 while on the ground at London Heathrow. The video can is now available at https://www.facebook.com/qatarairways/ The landing of the A350 on Sunday 30 October also marked another milestone for the airline as it took place on the same day as the start of a new joint business agreement between Qatar Airways and British Airways. The agreement benefits customers by offering a wider choice of flights by code sharing on all seven Qatar Airways and British Airways direct daily flights between London and Doha. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said that Qatar Airways Airbus A350 is one of the most advanced aircraft in their fleet, offering passengers an unrivalled level of comfort while experiencing our award-winning hospitality. It is only right that such an aircraft serves one of their six daily scheduled flights from Doha to London, a route further strengthened by their continued partnership with British Airways.

A new free entry transit visa effective from November 1, 2016 was announced by Qatar Airways and Qatar Tourism Authority for travellers to explore the destination within 96 hours.  This scheme allows passengers with layovers of five hours or more in Hamad International Airport to request a complimentary transit visa. The new system will allow transiting passengers of all nationalities to enter Qatar for up to 96 hours in between flights. All visas are granted at the sole discretion of the Qatari Ministry of Interior. Passengers can apply for their free transit visa through any of Qatar Airways’ offices, or online. To be eligible for the transit visa, passengers must have a confirmed ticket for a journey into Qatar, with a confirmed onward journey out of Qatar on a Qatar Airways-operated flight. Terms and conditions apply, which can be found at qatarairways.com/transitvisa

Qatar Airways has announced an expanded codeshare agreement with British Airways, which will provide travellers with a wider choice of flights and an enhanced network. With the launch of British Airway’s non-stop service between London and Doha, travellers will benefit from seven daily flights to Heathrow, improving connectivity on to each airline’s network. The expanded code-share network will now also include all of British Airways’ flights within the United Kingdom, covering Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle. Additionally, Qatar Airways will code-share on a number of routes from London Heathrow to Europe, including all services to Dublin in Ireland; Hamburg and Stuttgart in Germany; Luxembourg; Basel in Switzerland; Bilbao, Malaga, Ibiza and Palma in Spain; Lisbon and Faro in Portugal; and Billund in Denmark. This codeshare follows the recent announcement that Qatar Airways and British Airways will commence a joint business agreement from October 30, the same date as the first direct scheduled daily British Airways flight flies between London Heathrow and Doha. As part of the agreement, all non-stop flights between the United Kingdom and Doha will operate under the code-share agreement allowing both Oneworld carriers to provide passengers with better links between the UK, Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Qatar Airways has added another eight flights a week to Riyadh and one more daily flight to Dammam, increasing its connectivity to the two major Saudi cities, starting October 30, 2016. Through its hub in Hamad International Airport, Qatar Airways will operate four flights a day to King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, and five daily flights to King Fahad International Airport in Dammam. The additional flights take Qatar Airways’ total connectivity within the Kingdom to 158 flights a week, serving eight destinations: Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah, Dammam, Hofuf, Gassim, Taif, and Abha. Qatar Airways, the official sponsor of Al-Ahli Saudi FC and F.C. Barcelona recently announced hosting a friendly football match bringing together both teams to play at Shiekh Thani Bin Jassim Stadium (Al-Gharrafa Stadium) on December 13, 2016. Travellers from Saudi Arabia can take advantage of the increased frequencies to visit the new destinations that Qatar Airways has announced this year, which include exciting cities all around the globe, such as Los Angeles and Atlanta in the USA, Adelaide in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand, and numerous others in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Over 50 travel agents and tour operators from Dubai and Sharjah attended the Educational seminar session conducted by Qatar Airways and Orange County. The event took place at Raffles Dubai in association with AVIAREPS the representative for ME region for Orange County. They shared the importance of the destination and the many facilities, language, social etiquette etc to welcome guests from the ME region. Glenn Johnston, Vice President Corporate Communications & Public Relations, GM, UAE/Middle East, AVIAREPS, reiterated key ways to reach out to the clients with the many value added options with the one year partnership with Qatar Airways. They also launched the special privilege e-card for the travel agents and tour operators.

Qatar Airways will provide travellers with greater access to the idyllic white sand beaches and turquoise waters of the Seychelles with daily flights from Doha starting on December 12, 2016. Travellers wishing to explore Seychelles – one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations in the Indian Ocean – will enjoy convenient flights and award-winning service when travelling with Qatar Airways. Residents of the Seychelles will also benefit from the opportunity to connect to the airline’s network of more than 150 business and leisure destinations around the world via the airline’s hub in Doha. The airline’s expanding global reach and modern fleet will take travellers to exciting places across the globe including the airline’s latest destinations launched in 2016: Adelaide, Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Marrakech, Pisa, Ras Al Khaimah, Sydney, Windhoek and Yerevan.

Qatar Airways has opened a new route from Doha to Helsinki, the Finnish capital. His Excellency Akbar Al Baker, Group Chief Executive, Qatar Airways, hosted a press conference at Hotel Kämp in the centre of Helsinki following the arrival of the airline’s first flight to the Finnish capital. Qatar Airways is the first Middle Eastern carrier to serve all four Nordic capitals. The new route will also give the people of Finland the opportunity to connect to more than 150 destinations on the airline’s global network via its hub, Hamad International Airport, in Doha. Qatar Airways, already one of the fastest growing airlines in the history of aviation, flies daily to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and now Helsinki. This will give Finnish passengers the opportunity to travel seamlessly to destinations such as Krabi and the Seychelles, which will launch in December, and Auckland, which will launch on February 5, 2017, with many more new destinations to come.

Qatar Airways has announced the addition of special weekend getaway flights, to make quick weekend trips easier for people of Doha and Dubai. These new flights are effective from October 3, 2016. The flights are timed to make the most of the weekend, with a Thursday afternoon departure from Doha at 15:50, arriving Dubai International Airport at 18:00 local time, and the Dubai flight leaving at 19:00, arriving in Doha at 19:10 local time. For the Saturday return, weekend revelers can depart Doha at 14:50 and arrive in Dubai at 17:00, or leave Dubai at 18:00 and arrive in Doha at 18:10. These special weekend flights are in addition to Qatar Airways’ 19 other daily flights serving Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central. Qatar Airways currently offers 15 daily flights to Dubai International Airport, and four daily flights to Dubai World Central.

Qatar Airways and British Airways’ parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), have announced a joint business agreement that will come into effect on October 30, 2016. The joint business will see the two airlines code-sharing on all non-stop flights between the UK and Doha, to offer customers a combined route network that will serve more than 70 destinations. Between the airlines’ hubs of London and Doha the new partnership will offer seven daily non-stop services in both directions. The will benefit customers by offering a wider choice of flights, an enhanced network, greater choice of fares and superior benefits for members of their frequent flyer programmes. This partnership will allow the carriers to provide passengers with better links and an even more seamless travel experience between the UK, Asia, Middle East and Africa.  

A new transit visa structure unveiled by Qatar will now allow passengers with a minimum transit time of five hours in Hamad International Airport, to stay in Qatar for up to 96 hours (four days), without the requirement to apply ahead of time for an entry visa. Qatar Airways, Qatar Tourism Authority and Qatar’s Ministry of Interior recently announced this revised tourism visa scheme in a move to promote Qatar as a world-class stopover destination. This is a significant increase from the previous transit visa scheme, which allowed travellers with a minimum layover of eight hours to spend a maximum of 48 hours (two days) in Qatar. This increase is designed to make stopovers easier and more attractive to Qatar Airways’ global passengers, and aims to deliver additional value to the local economy while strengthening Qatar’s position as an attractive tourist destination. The Qatar transit visa is free of charge and available on arrival at Hamad International Airport to passengers of all nationalities, upon confirmation of onward journey and completion of passport control procedures. All visas are approved and issued at the sole discretion of the Ministry of Interior. The development, announced on the eve of World Tourism Day, is the third in a series of enhancements that Qatar has made to facilitate entry into the country for visitors. Last week, officials announced a new process to quicken the entry of tourists arriving on board cruise ships, and earlier, representatives signed an agreement with VFS Global, which will see the development of a new, faster and more transparent tourist visa application mechanism.