The network of Qatar Airways can exceed 250 destinations by 2020, the airline's high official said on Monday.
Speaking at a panel discussion on 'Connecting Qatar to new countries with their state- of-the-art airline' organized throughout the International product and Exhibition and Conference in national capital, Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar al Baker said,"We are proud to play a major role in building and protecting Qatar's future prosperity. Qatar Airways continues its growth and expansion plans as it has launched 24 new destinations since the beginning of the misappropriated blockade, and increasing the frequency of flights and upgrading the scale of craft on several existing routes."
"We promote Qatar and our brand through many prominent and prestigious international sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup of which we are the major sponsor. By promoting Qatar to the world as a tourism and stopover destination through our subsidiaries, we have experienced a 39% increase in the number of stopover passengers," he said.
"We promote Qatar and our brand through several distinguished and prestigious international sporting events, like the FIFA World Cup of that we have a tendency to square measure the most important sponsor. By promoting Qatar to the globe as a touristry and stopover destination through our subsidiaries, we've experienced a 39% increase within the variety of stopover passengers," he said.
Qatar Airways Cargo has been taking part in a key role in providing the foodstuffs required by the Qatari market, he said adding Qatar didn't face shortage of any product despite the continued blockade.
"At the start of the blockade, Qatar Airways foretold large loss of over $1 billion, however we have a tendency to worked arduous to take advantage of opportunities on new routes and also the company's loss amounted to solely $69 million," he said.
He said that Qatar Airways has become one among the strongest airlines at the worldwide level and can still expand and enhance its partnerships. Qatar Airways might consider a fuel surcharge similar to those applied by other airlines, he said.
"We hope we will be able to move to profitability in the current financial year, even though the oil prices are rising," Baker said.
Baker said that US sanctions on Iran will not impact Qatar Airways' flights to the Iran.
"Services to Iran would continue as aviation is not a sanctioned industry. Qatar Airways will continue to operate into the cities we are currently operating in Iran," he said.
Qatar Financial Centre Chief Executive Officer Yousuf al Jaida, who also took part in the discussion, said that QFC-registered companies are expected to make up 5% of market capitalisation of Qatar's stock exchange by 2022.
Qatar Tourism Authority Acting Chairman Hassan Abdulrahman al Ibrahim said several new partnerships with many countries around the world and the opening of new representative offices in many foreign markets contributed to increasing the number of tourists in the third quarters of 2018. He noted that the number of visitors from Russia increased by 214%, while visitors from China rose by 47%.
The number of German visitors also increased by 38% and the number of Indian visitors rose by 25%, he said.
Tag: Qatar , Local News , Qatar Airways