By Taylor Rains
Qatar Airways Expands U.S. Operation with Over 85 Weekly Flights
Qatar Airways is finally getting its operation back to pre-pandemic levels. Beginning June 1, the airline will resume service to Atlanta four times weekly and have 12 gateways into the United States – two more than before COVID-19 disrupted the industry. The announcement also revealed increased frequency to six other major U.S. cities, bringing Qatar’s service to the country to over 85 weekly flights.
Qatar has announced increased service to seven U.S. destinations, including Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York’s John F Kennedy, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. The re-opening of these gateways will offer passengers more flexible travel options and enhance the carrier’s connectivity to many of its global leisure destinations, including Cape Town, Maldives, Seychelles and Zanzibar, as well as to key cities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Newly added services include Atlanta, resuming 4x-weekly flights beginning June 1; Boston, increasing frequency to 4x weekly flights beginning July 3; Miami, increasing frequency to 5x weekly flights beginning July 7; New York-JFK, increasing frequency to 2x daily flights beginning July 21; Philadelphia, increasing frequency to 5x weekly flights beginning July 2; San Francisco, increasing frequency to 1x daily flights beginning July 2 and Seattle, increasing frequency to 1x daily flights beginning July 8
In addition to these destinations, Qatar has also increased flight frequency to Sao Paul, Brazil. Beginning Aug. 6, the carrier will operate daily flights from Doha to the leisure beach destination.
Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker said, “Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Qatar Airways has remained committed to its passengers and trade partners in the United States, maintaining continuous services while rebuilding its U.S. network and launching two new destinations – San Francisco and Seattle.
“We have also strengthened our presence in the U.S. through strategic partnerships with Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue that have enabled us to connect to more points in the United States than any other airline, providing U.S. travelers the most convenient way to travel internationally this summer,” Al Baker added.
Qatar’s expansion into the United States isn’t the only thing on its agenda. The carrier recently announced resumed service to Malaga, Spain, the third Spanish destination in the carrier’s network. The seasonal route will operate twice weekly from July 2 to Sept. 12 using Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The plane can accommodate 36 passengers in Business and 247 in Economy.
With daily flights to Barcelona and 10x weekly flights to Madrid, the Malaga route will increase Qatar’s Spain service to 19 weekly flights.
Al Baker explained, “As the world begins to open up again, we at Qatar Airways stand ready to take the lead in supporting the global economic and social recovery as demonstrated by our support for tourism in Spain. Spain has always been a strategically important country for our airline, as reflected by our deep partnership with Iberia and steady rebuild of our Spain network.”
Qatar isn’t only expanding its route network but also its codeshare partnership with Muscat-based Oman Air. In December 2020, Qatar and Oman announced strategic cooperation to enhance connectivity across both airlines’ route networks. Now, the airlines have taken the next steps in further strengthening that partnership, expanding the codeshare to over 80 destinations in Qatar’s network.
The cooperation will allow Oman Air passengers to seamlessly and conveniently connect via Doha to and from 16 new destinations, subject to regulatory approval. Those cities include Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bodrum, Istanbul Sabiha and Izmir in Turkey; Berlin and Munich in Germany; Mykonos, Greece; St. Petersburg, Russia; Zurich, Switzerland; Atlanta and Seattle in the United States; Abuja, Nigeria; Johannesburg, South Africa and Gassim, Saudi Arabia
Qatar is continuing to rebuild its network after a rough, unpredictable year, but the recovery is going strong. The Doha-based carrier currently serves 130 cities and plans to increase that to 1,200 weekly flights to more than 140 destinations worldwide by the end of July 2021.
Taylor Rains graduated from Florida Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Aviation Management in 2017. She has worked in the aviation industry for the past five years and has a specialty in safety analytics for part 121 airlines, but she has also worked for a part 135 company in Alaska. Her experience has allowed her to work in many areas of aviation, including airport operations, flight operations, security, inflight, dispatch, and maintenance. Taylor is also an avid traveler and has used her flight benefits to fly on as many airlines and aircraft types as possible. So far, her favorite flight has been aboard KLM’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner.