Qatar Airways announces resumption of flights to Beirut

The first flight QR422 will take off from Doha International Airport today at 1230 hrs, arriving in Beirut at 1535 hrs. The return flight QR423 will leave Beirut 1635 hrs, arriving in Doha at 1925 hrs.

Qatar Airways is the first airline to receive permission to restart scheduled services to the war-ravaged country since the signing of a ceasefire agreement on August 14.

Passengers travelling to Beirut, can take the non-stop flights, which will also help in the movement of humanitarian cargo to Lebanon.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said:

"This is great news for the people of Lebanon, not only can we start to repatriate citizens, but we can also lend our support in terms of aid shipments to the country. Lebanese nationals are only too keen to return home, to start the rebuilding of their beautiful country."

During the war, Qatar Airways continued to operate a series of extra flights to neighbouring Syria. The airline operated the extra flights in addition to the scheduled daily service between Doha and the Syrian capital, Damascus. From July 13 to August 15, Qatar Airways carried more than 13,000 passengers from Damascus to Doha.

Qatar Airways operates a fleet of 48 aircraft to 70 online destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Far East and Indian subcontinent from Doha, its hub and capital of the State of Qatar. Together with codeshare partners, Qatar Airways serves more than 90 cities worldwide.

Qatar Airways is one of only four airlines in the world with a Five Star ranking for service excellence awarded by Skytrax, the independent aviation industry monitoring agency.

Skytrax also named Qatar Airways' cabin crew best in the Middle East for the fourth year running in 2006 and second best in the world, while the airline's global rankings rose to an admirable fifth best. Qatar Airways plans to more than double its fleet size to 110 aircraft by 2015.