Qatar Airways

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Qatar Airways

IATA QR	ICAO QTR	Callsign QATARI
Founded		1993
Hubs		Doha International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Qatar Airways Privilege Club - Qmiles
Fleet size		56 (92 Orders)
Destinations		75
Parent company		Qatar Airways Group
Headquarters		Doha, Qatar
Key people		Akbar Al Baker (CEO)
Website: http://www.qatarairways.com

Qatar Airways (Arabic: القطرية) is an airline based in Doha, Qatar. It operates a hub and spoke network based on Doha, linking 75 international destinations. Its main base is Doha International Airport (DOH). It is among the fastest growing airlines and one of the four airlines that have gained the "five star airline" status from Skytrax. Qatar Airways is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
4 Incidents and accidents
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] History

The airline was established on 22 November 1993 and started operations on 20 January 1994. It was originally owned by members of the state's royal family but was relaunched in April 1997 by a new management team headed by Akbar Al Baker (Chief Executive). The airline is owned by the government of Qatar (50%) and private investors (50%).

Qatar Airways Privilege Club is the airlines Frequent Flyer Programme with the highest earn rate in the world. Qatar Airways is one of only four airlines that have achieved the five star status by an independent airline evaluation firm, Skytrax.

Qatar Airways was the official airline for the 2006 Asian Games that was held in Doha, Qatar on 1-15 December 2006.

Qatar Airways introduced a new livery for their planes in 2006. The first aircraft in the livery was an A340-600HGW. The livery was launched at ITB Berlin in March 2006, featuring the word "QATAR" emblazoned across the fuselage in burgundy, with the fin painted with the image of an oryx (the national animal and icon of Qatar). The livery was designed by Australian Marketing company Performa Global.

[edit] Destinations

See full article: Qatar Airways destinations

In November 2006, the airline announced 7 routes to be launched in 2007. These are: Lagos (Nigeria), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Newark (USA), and Washington D.C. (USA). Two other routes to Europe, Geneva and Stockholm will also be launched in 2007.

Lagos has started on March 1, 2007 with thrice-weekly services non-stop from Doha using an Airbus A330-200 with a 2-class configuration. Dar es Salaam has already been the first 2007 new destination for the airline, and the carrier's 71st destination.

The latest destinations in the airline's network include Chennai, India, and Bali, Indonesia, with daily flights and 4-times-weekly flights, respectively to those cities. Ho Chi Minh City was added in late March, 2007. The carrier currently serves 75 passenger destinations around the world.

Qatar Airways recently announced that it plans to make its first entry into the North American market in June 24, 2007 with direct non-stop scheduled flights to the United States using its new A340-600 HGW aircraft. It will start daily Washington D.C. (Dulles) flights starting June 24, 2007, where New York (Newark Liberty) flights will start June 28, 2007, with a four times a week A330-200 flight via Geneva, a new European destination.

The airline has launched nonstop flights to Madrid, replacing the Rome-Madrid sector. Starting summer 2007, the flights will be upgraded with the newer, A330-200 aircraft replacing the A300-600R on the route. The Doha-Berlin (TXL) flights will be upgraded to widebody aircraft instead of the Airbus A300-600R with an increase in weekly frequency. The airline recently added a sixth weekly flight to Osaka ahead of the Asian Games in Doha in December 2006, and has announced that services will be upgraded from the A330-200 to the A340-600 HGW. Starting later 2007, Hong Kong will also see an upgrade of aircraft from an A330-300 to an A340-600HGW on its daily service to Doha. Yangon is also upgraded to the larger A300 aircraft from the previous A319LR.

Chennai in southern India has already joined the network, while Ahmedabad, in western India, will join Qatar Airways’ burgeoning Indian network, which already includes non-stop services from Doha to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Cochin and Trivandrum.

Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, and the Gujarat capital of Ahmedabad, is served with daily flights. Qatar Airways has been granted rights by the Indian government to increase capacity to the Mumbai and Trivandrum with its bigger Airbus A330 aircraft – almost doubling the number of seats on both routes, each served daily.

The Cochin and Hyderabad flights will see frequency increase by two and three flights, respectively, to give both cities a daily operation, and each served with a two-class Airbus A321.

Qatar Airways normally operates 30 flights a week between Doha and five cities across India. Under the new bilateral arrangement, the airline will serve India with 49 flights a week.

Beginning November 2007, Qatar Airways will start nonstop flights to the Swedish capital Stockholm using its A319-100LR aircraft.

Qatar Airways applied to the Australian Government to fly daily from Doha to Sydney and Melbourne but this was initially rejected. The airline was however successful in Mid-March 2007 and won rights to fly daily to Melbourne. In return, the government of Qatar has to allow an Australian airline to fly to Doha with the same regularity. Daily service to an additional Australian city, starting in 2008, is also due to be announced. [1]

[edit] Fleet

Qatar Airways was the launch customer of the new Airbus A340-600HGW, showing the new Qatar Airways Livery

Qatar Airways Airbus A330-200

Qatar Airways Airbus A340-600HGW

Qatar Airways currently flies an all-Airbus fleet. This will change when it receives their ordered 777's. The fleet consists of the following aircraft as of March 2007:

**Qatar Airways Fleet**
Aircraft	Total	Passengers (First/Business*/Economy)
Airbus A300-600	10	250 (18/232) 216 (12/18/186)
Airbus A320	11	144 (12/132)
Airbus A321	2	177 (12/165)
Airbus A330-200	16 (2 orders)	218 (12/24/192) 238 (12/18/208) 250 (24/236) 272 (24/248) 281 (22/259)
Airbus A330-300	9 (4 orders)	305 (30/275) 259 (12/24/223)
Airbus A340-600	3 (1 order)	266 (8/42/216)
Airbus A350XWB	(80 orders)
Airbus A380	(2 orders)
Boeing 777-200LR	(6 orders)
Boeing 777F	(2 orders)
Boeing 777-300ER	(14 orders)

^{*Business Class is available on select Medium-Long Haul flights.}

In addition to the 2 Airbus A380, Qatar Airways has options on 2 more. It will start services with the A380 in 2009 to London (ref: Airliner World, March 2005).

At the 2005 Paris Air Show, Qatar Airways ordered 60 Airbus A350s and 20 Boeing 777s, with options for 20 more Boeing 777s. The airline has yet to sign a new contract for the A350XWB as the original A350 program was scrapped. In the ATP Berlin travel fair held in March 2007, Qatar Airways stated its intent to order up to 80 Airbus A350's, an increase of 20 aircraft over their previous intention. The Boeing 777s will be delivered between 2007 and 2010 (ref: Air International, July 2005). On December 17, 2006, Qatar Airways announced an order for 2 Boeing 777-200Fs. Qatar Airways will begin to receive the 22 Boeing 777s it has ordered in November 2007 with deliveries extending out to mid-2010. In addition to the 22 Boeing 777s, Qatar Airways hinted at purchasing 20 more Boeing 777s for a total of 42 777s. This additional purchase has not been confirmed yet.

The average age of the Qatar Airways fleet is 5.4 years (at February 2007).

It is the third largest operator of the Airbus A330 after Emirates and Cathay Pacific.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

An Airbus 330-200 (Flight QR889) suffered a double engine flameout on approach into Shanghai on June 1, 2006 after a flight from Doha. Both engines were restarted and an emergency landing made at Pu Dong International. The aircraft, registered A7-ACJ, had just been delivered. See GE investigates double CF6-80 flame-out on Qatar A330-200 into Shanghai

[edit] Trivia

The tail in Qatar Airways' livery features the head of a Qatari oryx nicknamed Orry. Since the fleet was repainted for the 2006 15th Asian Games, an animated Orry the Oryx was displayed on the tail of the A330-200.
Qatar Airways was the launch customer of the A319-100LR aircraft
Qatar Airways was also the launch customer of the A340-600HGW aircraft
On March 15th, 2007, Qatar Airways received the 800th member of the successful A330/A340 family aircraft, an A330-200, from Toulouse during a brief ceremony to commemorate the occasion.
On March 24th, 2007 A Qatar Airways aircraft landed at Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel carrying the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. This is the only time a Qatar Airways has landed in Israel, considering neither nations have formal political ties.