Qatar Airways enters South America

Brazil and Argentina have been added to Qatar Airways fast expanding network, representing its first foray into South America.

Dates and frequencies of flights to Sao Paolo in Brazil and Argentina’s capital city Buenos Aires have yet to be announced, but they join a series of route launches for 2010, which kicked off with the daily Doha-Bengaluru flights on February 22, followed by Copenhagen (four times weekly from March 28), Ankara (four times weekly from April 5), Tokyo (daily from April 26) and Barcelona (daily from June 7).

“These are exciting times for Qatar Airways looking forward to further expansion in line with our committed strategy to develop our global operations to all corners of the world,” said Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways chief executive said during the ongoing ITB Berlin, the largest travel trade event.

He observed that when he spoke at last year’s ITB, the airline’s fleet consisted only of 68 aircraft. “Today, we have grown in strength to 81 aircraft.”

In the past three months alone, Qatar has taken delivery of nine new narrow body aircraft and wide-body aicraft from Airbus and Boeing.

It currently has on order more than 200 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth over US$40 billion over the next few years.

When Qatar flights land in South America, its Doha hub will be linked to all the major continents.

For more about the airline, visit www.qatarairways.com

Margie T Logarta