Manchester and Barcelona to become double-daily from February; Flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen increase from a daily schedule to a ten weekly and eleven weekly service respectively.
DOHA, QATAR – Qatar Airways will significantly expand its capacity across Europe in the New Year, with additional frequencies added to European cities from February. Barcelona and Manchester will become a double daily service, while Stockholm and Copenhagen will see services increase from a daily to ten and eleven weekly service respectively.
The additional frequencies to Manchester, Barcelona, Stockholm and Copenhagen will provide travellers with even more convenient options when travelling to any of the 145 destinations around the globe served by Qatar Airways from the state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport. Likewise, those passengers travelling from the Asia-Pacific region, now have additional connection opportunities through to these European cities.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “As a rapidly expanding global airline, it is crucial that we not only support new destination launches, but also add to the existing capacity across our network. This, in turn, provides passengers with an additional level of connectivity and choice when travelling the globe, facilitated by seamless transfers through our new five-star hub and home, Hamad International Airport.”
The additions to the Copenhagen and Stockholm routes will start from 1st and 2nd February respectively, with double-daily flights to Manchester and Barcelona taking effect from 15th and 16th February respectively.
The Manchester to Doha service, which commenced in 2003, recently celebrated a decade of scheduled operations. With the addition of Edinburgh in May this year, Qatar Airways now serves a total of three destinations in the UK including London Heathrow, and is responding to growing demand by increasing its service to Manchester from 10 to 14 flights per week.
Ken O’Toole, Chief Commercial Officer at Manchester Airports Group (MAG) said: “We are delighted that Qatar Airways will increase its long-haul services from Manchester Airport, providing further direct connectivity to Doha and beyond. The service will provide increased choice to the 22 million passengers living close to Manchester Airport.”
From 16th February 2015, Qatar Airways will also operate a double-daily direct scheduled service from Barcelona-El Prat Airport to Doha, adding four extra weekly flights to the existing 10. The airline first started flying to Spain in December 2005 and has seen continual growth in this market. With the extra capacity to Barcelona, the airline will offer a total of 24 weekly flights from Spain to Doha, including the 10 weekly flights to and from Madrid.
With the launch of these additional frequencies, passengers from the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa can now take advantage of additional connections to these European cities via Doha.
Qatar Airways brings forward its A380 service to Bangkok
It was just last month that Qatar Airways announced that its newly received A380 aircraft would be ready for touchdown in Bangkok, Thailand, in January 2015. Responding to high demand for the state-of-the-art aircraft, Qatar Airways has brought forward the arrival date of the A380 to Bangkok to 5 December 2014.
In the wake of the overwhelming success of its inaugural service to London Heathrow, followed by a second service to Paris, Qatar Airways now operates its third A380 route to Thailand, just in time for holiday travellers to experience the airline’s five-star service over the festive season.
The additional capacity offered to passengers with the introduction of the A380 operated on one of the airline’s four-times daily services gives passengers the opportunity to experience the latest aircraft to join the Qatar Airways fleet.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Bangkok is an ever-increasingly popular destination for holiday makers and Qatar Airways is pleased to be providing additional capacity on the route.
“We recently also introduced the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the Phuket route, deploying two of the very latest aircraft on these popular routes.”
The airline’s A380 superjumbo is operated in a tri-class configuration of First, Business and Economy cabins and includes a total of 517 seats.
The First Class cabin features eight seats on the upper deck in a 1-2-1 configuration. Each seat features a 90” pitch with a fully lie-flat bed, 26” HD in-flight entertainment screen and direct aisle access. The First Class cabin also features exclusive spa-like bathrooms with luxurious amenities to ensure passengers enjoy a comfortable and leisurely flight.
The Qatar Airways A380 Business Class cabin features 48 seats on the upper deck in a 1-2-1 configuration, each with an 80” fully flat bed, 17” HD in-flight entertainment screen and direct aisle access.
There are two Economy Class cabins on the Qatar Airways A380, with 56 seats on the upper deck in a 2-4-2 configuration, and 405 seats on the main deck in a 3-4-3 configuration. Each Economy Class seat is 18.5” wide with a 32” pitch and features a 10.6” in-flight entertainment screen.
The upper deck also features a spacious inflight lounge offering Premium passengers an escape from the typical airplane environment, which is unique to the A380.
Another key feature of Qatar Airways’ A380 service is its in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity available across all classes of travel.
Qatar Airways has received three of its 13 A380s on order to date.
Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operation, to the point where today it is flying a modern fleet of 142 aircraft to 145 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.
Photo caption: Barcelona will be served by Qatar Airways with a double daily service from February 16.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
