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Qatar Airways flies high with daily flight to Baku

By By SIRAJ WAHAB BAKU, Azerbaijan: Qatar Airways is flying high with the launch on Thursday of daily non-stop flights to the Azerbaijani capital Baku. This marks the beginning of the Qatari airline's ambitious 2012 worldwide route expansion program.

Baku is the airline's newest route in Europe. With the flights continuing onto Georgian capital Tbilisi, the Doha-based carrier increases its European network to 29 cities.

After inaugurating seven new routes across Europe last year, Saturday's addition of two cities in southeastern Europe further diversifies Qatar Airways ' portfolio on the continent. Destinations currently served across Europe include Ankara, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Venice, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Madrid.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker flew on the inaugural flight QR976 from Doha to Baku with a high-level delegation of diplomats and journalists, including Azerbaijani Ambassador to Qatar Eldar Salimov and Qatari Ambassador to Turkey Abdul Razzak Al-Abdul Ghani. The arrival included a colorful airport ceremony welcoming guests off the first flight.

The delegation was welcomed at Heydar Aliyev International Airport by Qatari Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mubarak Fahad Al-Thani. Addressing guests on arrival in Baku, Al-Baker said Azerbaijan's huge energy resources and booming tourism industry were key factors in Qatar Airways ' decision to start operations to Baku.

"We are delighted to open this route, creating a new air corridor and providing the traveling public with more choice through additional air services," he said. "Azerbaijan is a country with tremendous potential, rich in energy offering great business opportunities, and a landscape providing a good base for family and independent tourism. We look forward to bringing visitors from around the world to Baku and its surroundings and, similarly, provide Azerbaijanis with the opportunity to fly to global destinations on Qatar Airways via our Doha hub. As the only five-star airline flying to Baku, Qatar Airways is proud to bring its award-winning service to the people of Azerbaijan."

From Doha, the airline offers excellent onward connections to cities across the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, including Dubai, Muscat, Kuwait, Entebbe, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Goa and Melbourne.

Qatar Airways is operating an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration on the route, featuring 12 seats in business class and up to 132 seats in economy. Regardless of class of travel, the aircraft offers all passengers seatback TVs to enjoy the next generation interactive onboard entertainment system with a choice of more than 700 audio and video on demand options.

Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of 104 aircraft to 112 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America. Last year was a landmark for Qatar Airways because of the addition of 15 new destinations to its network. It won the coveted Skytrax Airline of the Year 2011 award.

As part of its 2012 expansion program, Qatar Airways will launch flights to seven further destinations -- Kigali (Rwanda) from March 21; Zagreb (Croatia) from May 9; Perth (Australia) from July 3; with dates yet to be announced for other new routes -- Mombasa (Kenya), Zanzibar (Tanzania), Helsinki (Finland) and Qassim (Saudi Arabia).

Qatar Airways currently has orders worth over $50 billion for more than 250 aircraft, including Boeing 787s, 777s, Airbus A350s, A380s and A320 family of aircraft.

In addition to winning Skytrax's prestigious Airline of the year 2011 award last summer, Qatar Airways was named Best Airline in the Middle East for the sixth year in a row, and its Premium Terminal at Doha International Airport was named Best First Class Airline Lounge.

© Arab News 2012