Qatar Airways unveils schedules to Iranian city of Mashad

The city will be served non-stop twice-a-week from Qatar Airways' operational hub of Doha, capital of the State of Qatar. The route will be operated with an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business and 132 in Economy.

Mashad becomes Qatar Airways' second Iranian point to be served from Doha, following the successful launch of flights to the capital Tehran 12 months ago - a route which has grown from strength to strength.

With a population of two million people, Mashad is Iran's second largest city and is the centre of commerce and industry in Khorasan Province in north-west Iran. The city is also the centre of Iran's carpet weaving industry.

To celebrate the route launch, Qatar Airways is offering members of its Privilege Club frequent flyer programme with double Qmiles for the first full month of the new Mashad flights.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the Tehran route had performed extremely well, prompting the airline to step up capacity from four to five flights a week soon after the launch.

"Tehran has proved to be a very important and busy route for Qatar Airways which is why increased capacity last year.

"We are now delighted to add Mashad as our second point in Iran and serve the growing needs of our passengers, many of whom will be travelling from neighbouring Middle East markets to Iran," he said.

"Mashad is the first of our three new routes next month as we launch Alexandria on June 9 and Athens on June 15 in line with our expansion plans. These three new routes alone will take our global network to 65 destinations worldwide.

"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."