Manchester welcomes Qatar Airways

The inaugural flight of Qatar Airway's new non-stop service to Manchester from Doha, which will operate four times a week, arrived in England's North West to a traditional water cannon salute.

On hand to greet the Qatar Airways' delegation, led by the airlines Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al-Baker, was Councillor Brian Harrison, Chairman of Manchester Airport and a strong media corps from the North West of England. Al-Baker and Councillor Harrison cut a commemorative cake to mark the occasion.

Manchester has become Qatar Airways' 40th destination and the launch of the new service from Doha takes the carrier's schedule to Britain from 11 flights to 15 a week. The carrier currently operates 11 flights a week from Doha to London Heathrow.

Qatar Airways' plans to fly to 50 destinations by the end of this year.

Qatar Airways is using a twin-engined, wide-bodied Airbus A300-600R aircraft on its Doha-Manchester route, with 224 seats in a three-class configuration. The service has 12 seats in First Class, 18 in Business Class and 194 in Economy.

Now flying to 40 destinations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Qatar Airways has chalked out an ambitious growth plan, which aims to increase the carrier's route network to 50 destinations and double its fleet strength within the next two years. Qatar Airways currently has a fleet of 21 Airbus aircraft, which will grow to 28 by the end of this year.

Qatar Airways also includes a number of subsidiary companies, including Qatar Duty Free, Qatar Aviation Services, Qatar Aircraft Catering Company, Qatar Airways Holidays and the Qatar Distribution Company.