Qatar Airways Voted Best Long-Haul Airline

London, January 23 (QNA) - Qatar Airways has been voted Best Long-Haul Airline at the 18th annual Business Travel Awards ceremony held at the Governor House hotel in London this week. Organized by Buying Business Travel magazine, UK travelers awarded the Five-Star carrier for its commitment to quality and superior in-flight service. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said he was delighted that the airline s award winning streak has continued into the New Year. "This is a great start to 2013 and we thank our loyal UK travelers for giving us this vote of confidence. We are very proud to receive this honour, testament to the world-class service and personalized treatment that we provide all of our customers. 2013 will be another big year for Qatar Airways as we continue to expand our worldwide network, welcome more aircraft into our ever-expanding fleet, and of course look forward to the opening of the new Hamad International Airport on April 1," Al Baker said. Qatar Airways Vice President Commercial Europe, Paul Johannes, collected the award on behalf of the airline. Editor of Buying Business Travel, Paul Revel, said: "The judges felt that Qatar Airways is right up there with the best. A very impressive submission, underlining the youth and dynamism of this carrier. A great product, rapidly expanding network and plenty of innovation." The past twelve months have seen Qatar Airways honoured with a host of several awards from around the world, including being named Airline of the Year for the second consecutive year by the prestigious Skytrax organization. The award follows other recent accolades from Business Traveller s sister publications around the world; Best Business Classin the World by Business Traveller Middle East and Best Airline in the Middle East and Africa by Business Traveller Asia Pacific. One of the world s fastest growing airlines, Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 16 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 118 aircraft to 124 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas with the aggressive expansion continuing well into 2013. Over the next few weeks and months, Qatar Airways will launch services to a diverse portfolio of new routes, including Phnom Penh, Cambodia (February 20); Chengdu, China (March 19); Chicago, USA (April 10); and Salalah, Oman (May 22) with many more new start-ups planned.(QNA)