Qatar Airways continues to lead the industry in providing global connectivity by resuming flights to just over half the destinations it operated pre-COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, Qatar Airways network has never fallen below 30 destinations with continuous services to five continents.
By mid-September, Qatar Airways will operate over 650 weekly flights to more than 85 destinations, providing more flexible travel options to more global destinations than any other airline.
“The gradual rebuilding of our network has been focused on strengthening connections between our hub in Doha and key gateways around the world as well as major business and leisure destinations. The resumption of flights to Philadelphia will provide seamless connections via our U.S. partners to several key domestic points such as Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Similarly, the increase in frequencies to Djibouti, Ho Chi Minh City, London and New York will provide further air freight capacity to these important trades and economic centres,” Akbar Al Baker, Group Chief Executive, Qatar Airways, said.
According to him, the recovery of international travel will take time but returning to over 50 per cent of our pre-COVID-19 network is a significant milestone. “We have taken more international passengers home than any other airline during this pandemic and as entry restrictions ease and we resume more of our pre-COVID-19 network, we remain focused on our fundamental mission of carrying passengers across the globe safely and reliably,” he added.
Qatar Airways also remain in close contact with Australian authorities regarding flight restrictions as ensuring the ongoing repatriation of passengers to the country is becoming increasingly challenging. “Despite the restrictions on passengers allowed to be carried into the country, we continue to fulfil our mission to facilitate ongoing repatriation for as many people as possible by operating a robust Australian network to five cities, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne (currently no inbound passengers permitted), Perth and Sydney, offering more flights than any other international airline. While other airlines grounded operations, we maintained our flights, carrying almost 40% of all international travellers to and from Australia between April and June 2020, helping to take over 180,000 Australian and international travellers home since the start of the crisis. These flights have also helped maintain vital supply chains for Australian businesses with our airline carrying over 15,000 tonnes of Australian goods since 1 March 2020,” he informed.