Qatar Airways turned heads at ITB Berlin yesterday with an extensive route expansion announcement.
Ahead of the Summer 2023 season, Qatar Airways is wanting to continue the successes experienced off the back of the FIFA World Cup.
This upgrade will see the airline add over 655 weekly flights to the Summer 2023 schedule compared to the same period last year.
Seven New Destinations for Qatar Airways…
Within this huge announcement, Qatar Airways revealed that seven new destinations are planned for launch in 2023.
The airline will be launching services to the following destinations:
- Chittagong
- Juba
- Kinshasa
- Lyon
- Medan
- Toulouse
- Trabzon
Juba in South Sudan is one to be noted as the travel industry within that country is beginning to explode with positive demand.
Continuation of 11 Destinations…
Within the announcement, Qatar Airways also announced that it would be reinstating the following 11 destinations:
- Beijing
- Birmingham
- Buenos Aires
- Casablanca
- Davao
- Marrakesh
- Nice
- Osaka
- Phnom Penh
- Ras Al-Khaimah
- Tokyo Haneda
Frequency Upgrades: A Long List…
And if you thought that was the announcement, then you are wrong! Qatar Airways also announced that it would be increasing frequencies on the following long list of existing destinations:
- Abuja – Port Harcourt – increased from two weekly flights to three
- Abuja – Kano – increased from three weekly flights to four
- Athens – increased from seven weekly flights to 14
- Belgrade – increased from five weekly flights to seven
- Berlin – increased from 11 weekly flights to 14
- Bucharest – increased from 10 weekly flights to 14
- Cairo – increased from 21 weekly flights to 28
- Copenhagen – increased from four weekly flights to seven, and 10 from winter season 2023/24
- Finnair also operates 7 weekly flights, totaling 17 weekly in Copenhagen
- Denpasar – increased from 14 weekly flights to 21
- Dublin – increased from 12 weekly flights to 14
- Düsseldorf – increased from seven weekly flights to 11 for winter season 2023/24
- Edinburgh– increased from 10 weekly flights to 14
- Hanoi – increased from 10 weekly flights to 12
- Hong Kong – increased from 11 weekly flights to 14
- Khartoum – increased from seven weekly flights to 14
- Larnaca – increased from seven weekly flights to 14
- London Gatwick – increased from seven weekly flights to 10 (14 weekly flights for peak summer season)
- London Heathrow – increased from 42 weekly flights to 45
- Madrid – increased from 16 weekly flights to 18
- Manila – increased from 17 weekly flights to 18
- Milan – increased from 16 weekly flights to 21
- Mogadishu – increased from three weekly flights to four
- Nagpur – increased from four weekly flights to seven
- Oslo – increased from seven weekly flights to 12 for winter season 2023/24
- Phuket – increased from 14 weekly flights to 21 for winter season 2023/24
- Saigon – increased from 10 weekly flights to 12
- Sarajevo – increased from three weekly flights to four for the summer season of 2023
- Sofia – increased from three weekly flights to four weekly flights in summer and five weekly flights in winter season 2023/24
- Stockholm – increased from three weekly flights to five for winter season 2023/24
- Finnair also operates 7 weekly flights, totaling 12 weekly in Stockholm
- Taif – increased from three weekly flights to seven
- Vienna – increased from 10 weekly flights to 14
- Warsaw – increased from seven weekly flights to 14 from winter season 2023/24
- Yerevan – increased from seven weekly flights to 10
- Zagreb – increased from four weekly flights to seven
- Zurich – increased from 10 weekly flights to 14
al-Baker: Qatar Airways “Dedicated to Enriching the Global Community”…
The carrier’s Group CEO, His Excellency Mr. Akbar al-Baker, said the following in the announcements:
“Qatar Airways is dedicated to enriching the global community which it serves. As the World’s Best Airline, we are excited to offer more ways of bringing the world together, increasing connectivity, and bridging gaps within the travel industry.”
“As we expand our fleet, network, partnerships, and international presence, we look forward to working together to deliver sustainable growth and a compelling future for the industry.
“We continue to look forward to our bright future here in Qatar, with multiple projects lined up for 2023 and beyond, such as the Formula 1 partnership and much more.”
“Qatar will continue to be a global hub of connectivity and an ideal destination for tourism long after the great success of the historic FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.”
Overall…
It remains clear that this is a massive expansion in Qatar Airways’ route network and propels the need for as much aircraft utilization as possible.
All eyes will be on the airline to see how much further it wishes to take such an expansion, but with this being so expansive, this could be the only announcement.
That’s the thing with Qatar Airways. Once they go big, they go big indeed.
