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Qatar Airways has announced that the airline will commence regular scheduled services to the Queensland capital, with three weekly flights beginning as of 20 May.
The service will operate an Airbus A350-1000, offering 46 business class seats and 281 seats in economy.
As part of the company’s push in the repatriation space, Qatar obtained short-term approval to operate flights to Brisbane from late March to early April.
“Qatar Airways received exceptional approval to operate short-term services to Brisbane to repatriate the many tourists, students and diplomats who wanted to go back to their home countries,” said Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker.
“Our flights also provided Australians with an opportunity to come back home from various parts of the world including Europe, the Gulf and Middle East, Asia, and others. We successfully completed this task, but now there are more travellers wanting to get home.
“With the resumption of these three-weekly flights, we are supporting critical passenger movements, and aiming to alleviate some of those anxieties.”
With the announcement of the Brisbane leg, Qatar Airways will now operate 21 passenger flights per week to Australia from the Qatari capital, Doha:
- Three flights per week to Brisbane (Airbus A350-1000);
- Four flights per week to Perth (Airbus A350-1000);
- Daily flights to Melbourne (Airbus A350-1000); and
- Daily flights to Sydney (Airbus A350-1000).
Over the course of the COVID-19 outbreak, Qatar Airways has maintained a significantly higher percentage of passenger services than its competitors, even prompting some embassies (including those of Britain and Germany) to direct stranded nationals to make use of the airline for repatriation flights.
Currently, Qatar continues to operate to 16 destinations in Europe, including London, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam, and plans to add an additional seven European destinations by the end of June.
The airline has also targeted the cargo market both abroad and at home; last month, Qatar Airways Cargo joined the Australian government’s Freight Assistance Mechanism to support Australian agriculture exporters, offering a combined air freight capacity of more than 850 tonnes.
