Qatar Airways Launches Doha-Baku Direct Flight

Baku , February 02 (QNA) - Qatar Airways launched its first flights to the Azerbaijani city Baku at the lead of its expansion programme this year which happens to be the newest European route among Qatar Airways' destinations. Qatar Airways will operate daily non-stop flights from Doha to Baku continuing to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. By flight continuation to the Georgian capital, Qatar Airways will bring the number of its flights to European countries up to 29, raising its global expanding network to 112 destinations. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker headed a high-ranking delegation including the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Qatar Eldar Salimov with representatives of Global Media Network and executives of Qatar Airways who have arrived Wednesday by the first QR976 flight. HE Qatar Ambassador to Azerbaijan Sheikh Mubarak bin Fahd bin Jassim Al Thani and representatives of Azerbaijani civil aviation authorities have welcomed the Qatar Airways delegation at Heydar Aliyev International Airport. CEO Akbar Al- Baker reiterated, in a reception ceremony for the Qatar Airways' first QR976 flight with the presence of global and local media, that Azerbaijani rich power resources in addition to its tourism sector prosperity were the main factors that prompted Qatar Airways to take the decision of launching flights to Baku. In his speech during the reception ceremony, he said "Azerbaijan has huge potentials as it is an energy-rich country which provides huge commercial opportunities, in addition to its beautiful nature that is perfect for family and individual tourism." He added "We are pleased today to launch this new route to allow wide range of options for our passengers, and we are looking forward to welcoming passengers from all over the world to Baku and neighboring regions and at the same time giving the Azerbaijani passengers the opportunity to fly to various destinations around the world through our headquarters in Doha." CEO Al baker as well has expressed his pleasure that Qatar airways is the only five star airline flying to Baku and offering its prestigious services to Azerbaijani people." For his part, Vice President and CEO Eldar Aghayev, stressed his country's keenness to offer all facilitations to the Qatari Carrier. The new flight will be operated by an Airbus-320 airliner consisted of two classes; 12 seats in business class and 132 seats in economy class. The flight time from Doha to Baku is 3 hours long. The passengers in both classes gets the opportunity to enjoy the new generation of in-flight entertainment system that offers more than 700 audio-visual programs with a remote control. It is noteworthy that Qatar Airways has launched 15 new destinations last year, including 7 European destinations. The joining of these two new destinations in South-Eastern Europe will enrich the airlines destinations' diversity in the continent that currently covers (Ankara, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Venice, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Madrid). Doha as a hub, Qatar Airways offers as well excellent options for connecting flights to many cities in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Pacific Ocean Region, including Dubai, Muscat, Kuwait, Antibes, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Goa, and Melbourne. Qatar Airways today operates a new fleet of 104 aircrafts from Doha to 112 main destinations of work and tourism in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Pacific Ocean region and North and South America. As a part of its expansion programme this year, the airline will launch 7 new destinations; Kigali (Rwanda) on March 31st, Zagreb (Croatia) on May 9th, and Perth (Australia) on July 3rd, in addition to other destinations of non-announced launching dates which are Mombasa (Kenya), Zanzibar (Tanzania), Helsinki (Finland) and Al - Qussaim (Kingdom Saudi Arabia). (QNA)