Qatar Airways announces three new routes

The Iranian holy city of Mashad and the Egyptian tourist centre of Alexandria will be added to the network in June, followed four months later by the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in October.

With scheduled flights to Tunis and Algiers launched earlier this week on May 2, Qatar Airways increased its tally of destinations to 62 worldwide with a fleet of 40 modern all-Airbus aircraft. The airline has been busy preparing for its 63rd route, when the Greek capital Athens comes on line in June.

The route expansion was announced by Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker at Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the Middle East's leading travel trade event being held in Dubai this week.

Speaking at a press conference at ATM, Al Baker said the expansion reinforced Qatar Airways' status as one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.

"Our expansion is being achieved with a dedicated workforce, careful planning and the delivery of modern, reliable and comfortable state-of-the-art aircraft," he said.

"Qatar Airways is growing at a phenomenal pace opening up new routes and adding new and modern aircraft every year to become an airline of choice.

"The business is there, the market is there, demand is there - and we operate routes to serve the growing needs of our passengers.

"Our new routes will be ideal for pilgrims, holidaymakers and business travellers from the region and, indeed around the world, who can feed into our flights in and out of Doha."

The new routes are:

Mashad 2-times-a-week from June 1, 2005
Alexandria 3-times-a-week from June 9, 2005
Athens 6-times-a-week from June 15, 2005
Nairobi Date TBC from October 2005

Qatar Airways is also increasing capacity in key markets this summer and the coming winter.

Al Baker revealed that the airline took delivery of its 40th aircraft last week, a brand new Airbus A330-300 featuring state-of-the-art interiors with one of the best Business and First Class cabins in the sky.

"Over the next few months during the busy summer season, Qatar Airways will be putting extra capacity into certain markets," he said.

"Our Zurich flights will be upgraded from the Airbus A319 to the larger A300s, while our new services to Tunis and Algiers will, from June, be also served with the bigger aircraft. We are also looking at increasing frequency to Manchester in the UK."

He added: "And we are stepping up the number of services to Germany following the recently-concluded more liberal bilateral agreement between the governments of Qatar and Germany."