Speaking at Arabian Travel Market (ATM), Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker unveiled the expansion plans covering a wide network of markets across the carrier’s global network.
Scheduled flights to Iraq will begin on May 23 with Erbil in the north, followed two weeks later by services to the capital Baghdad on June 7.
Each route will be served with four-flights-a-week non-stop from Doha.
Effective July 25, the airline will launch flights to Kilimanjaro, its second gateway in Tanzania.
The daily services will operate via Nairobi.
Beginning August 15, Qatar Airways introduces its third African destination of 2012 with the launch of flights to the holiday center of Mombasa — its second point in Kenya after the capital Nairobi.
In Asia, the Kuala Lumpur route will be served three-times daily from September, up from the recently-expanded capacity of 17 flights each week.
In Europe, the Doha-Milan route will be upgraded to double daily this month from the current 11-a-week.
In the Middle East, three routes will benefit from additional capacity.
Kuwait last month saw the introduction of a new daily flight taking frequency up to 49 services each week.
From June, extra seven flights will be operated on the route taking capacity up to 56 services — eight daily round-trip flights every week.
Also in June, the Doha-Abu Dhabi route will go up to 42 flights each week with the introduction of a new daily service offering in total six daily flights.
Added Al Baker: “This year alone will see Qatar Airways take delivery of one new aircraft every 15 days, so there are plenty of opportunities to look at inducting them into service on both new and well established routes.”
