New destination demonstrates Qatar Airways commitment to Saudi Arabia; Airline increases frequencies to Madinah and Gassim due to strong demand.
DOHA, QATAR – Qatar Airways is adding Al Hofuf in Saudi Arabia to its ever-increasing list of destinations. And as a further demonstration of its commitment to expanding its regional footprint, Qatar Airways recently increased the frequencies of two of its other destinations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Strong passenger demand has prompted the Doha-based airline to double its weekly flight frequency to Gassim, while flights to Madinah recently increased from five to seven per week. The additional new destination of Al Hofuf, through Al Ahsa Airport (HOF), is further proof of the increasing consumer and business demands on these popular Saudi Arabian routes.
A Qatar Airways Airbus A320 aircraft, which will service the new Doha to Al Hofuf route
Details of the new and additional frequencies are as follows;
- Al Hofuf (Saudi Arabia) a new service of 4 flights per week starting on 15 May
- Gassim (Saudi Arabia) a doubling from 4 to 8 flights per week from 15 May
- Madinah (Saudi Arabia) increased from 5 to 7 flights per week from 30 March.
The increase in frequency on these routes, together with the new destination of Al Hofuf, will mean that Qatar Airways will now fly to seven destinations in Saudi Arabia and will operate 79 flights per week to the country.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker said: “At Qatar Airways, we remain committed to opening up access to new destinations in the Middle East and around the world. As we continue to expand our network and receive more aircraft, we will keep looking at opportunities to add capacity to our existing network and further strengthen our links within the Gulf itself.”
The new Al Hofuf route will be operated with an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in Economy Class. The aircraft features seatback TV screens providing all passengers in both cabins with the next generation interactive onboard entertainment systems.
And the increases in frequency on the other two routes will provide business and leisure passengers travelling to all three destinations with more flexibility and greater choice to connect onto Qatar Airways’ extensive global network covering six continents.
Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 131 aircraft to 137 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas.
Over the next few months, the network will grow further with Larnaca, Cyprus (April 29, 2014), Al Hofuf (15 May, 2014), Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport, Turkey (May 22, 2014), Edinburgh, Scotland (May 28, 2014), Miami, USA (June 10, 2014), Haneda, Japan (June 18, 2014) and Dallas/Fort Worth, USA (July 1, 2014).
Qatar Airways announces upgrade to Moscow route
Commencing 1 September 2014, Qatar Airways will be upgrading services on its Moscow route with an increase in weekly frequencies, as well as new aircraft to help meet the growth in demand to the Russian capital.
Qatar Airways will be adding two additional flights per week to the Doha-Moscow route, bringing the total frequency for each week up to 14. To go along with the increase in frequency, the airline is introducing its newly upgraded A320 to replace the current mixed fleet of A321 and A320s, as well as a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The increase in both frequency and aircraft capacity will bring the total number of Business Class seats up to 476 and Economy Class seats to 4,928 per week, an increase of 188 and 1,328 seats respectively from the current number servicing the route.
Mr. Akbar Al Baker said: “We established our Moscow route just over 10 years ago, and since then we have watched it grow steadily. I’m very pleased that we are able to meet our customers demand by increasing not only the frequency of flights per week, but also introducing one of the most state-of-the-art aircraft in the world to the route.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
