Qatar Airways Adds New Non-stop Flights Routes to Uganda, Azerbaijan and Georgia

Qatar Airways announced three new routes as part of its expansion plans. The carrier will launch non-stop flights from Doha to Entebbe, Uganda on 2nd November and to Baku, Azerbaijan onto Tbilisi, Georgia on 30th November.

Qatar Airways yesterday announced an expansion of its international route network with the airline all set to offer flights to Uganda, Azerbaijan and Georgia from the airline’s hub at Doha.

From November 2nd 2011, Qatar Airways will operate daily non-stop scheduled flights to Entebbe, one of the largest cities in Uganda. This will be the carrier’s first new route to the African continent since 2007.

Qatar Airways will expand its operations into Central Asia from November 30th when the flag carrier of Qatar will introduce daily non-stop flights to Baku continuing onto Tbilisi, the capital cities of Azerbaijan and Georgia respectively.

The new routes will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft in a two-class constitution. A total of 12 seats will be available in business class whereas 132 seats will be offered to travellers who prefer economy class tickets.

Qatar Airways made this announcement as the airline prepares itself for hectic few months ahead with the start of flight operations to Shiraz, Venice and Montreal in June; Kolkata in July; Sofia in September and Oslo in October.

Addressing a press conference in Dubai at one of the Middle East’s premier travel trade show (Arabian Travel Market), Qatar Airways’ Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker observed that markets like Uganda, Azerbaijan and Georgia are hugely underserved by international airlines.

“But there is clearly demand and huge potential and, as a network global carrier, we are able to fulfil the needs of the travelling public from these three countries and for those wanting to travel there from markets we serve around the world,” Al Baker was quoted by the Qatar Airways’ website while addressing the packed international press conference.

“Qatar Airways already has a successful operation to the Russian capital Moscow. Expanding our presence deeper into Central Asia has been a focus of ours for some time so it is with extreme delight to be able to announce we will soon have new routes to add in this part of the world.

“And we are pleased to be reinforcing our presence in Africa, four years after our last move there when we launched flights to Tanzania’s capital city of Dar es Salaam. Adding Entebbe provides us with another foothold deeper into the African continent, where we already serve 15 destinations. We are confident this route start-up will be as successful as the others being planned,” he further added.

Qatar Airways is one of the few airlines awarded with 5-star rating by Skytrax along the likes of Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines. Qatar Airways may not be the first name that springs up when the discussion is about tickets on cheap flights, however if travellers plan their travel early and book well in advance, the chances of netting cheap tickets on flights goes dramatically up for passengers.

Qatar Airways’ Express Expansion

Qatar Airways has really been on an expansion spree for the past few months. In January 2011, the airline launched flights to Bucharest, Budapest and Brussels in a single month alone. The 5-star airline also started flights to Germany’s Stuttgart in March and to Syria’s Aleppo in April, and now this triple bonanza to Uganda, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Al Baker stated, “As we take delivery of more aircraft, we will quickly induct them into service and constantly look at new opportunities to give the travelling public more travel options, more choice and more flexibility.”

Qatar Airways’ hub at Doha International Airport feeds passenger and cargo traffic to all parts of the world. The carrier currently operates flights to 100 cities worldwide with a modernised fleet of nearly 100 aircraft. By 2013, the carrier hopes to serve over 120 locations with a fleet of more than 120 aircraft.

Get JetBlue Partner Airlines Ticket on JetBlue Dot Com

JetBlue Airways is making it even easier to travel on its interline partners with today’s announcement that tickets that include travel on Aer Lingus, American Airlines and Cape Air are now available for sale on jetblue.com. Aer Lingus and American Airlines tickets that include travel on JetBlue are already available on aerlingus.com and aa.com.

“Our growing presence in New York, Boston, and San Juan has positioned us to take advantage of important partnership opportunities,” said Robin Hayes, JetBlue’s Chief Commercial Officer. “This ability leverages our jetblue.com platform to drive even more benefit from our interline partnerships, while adding tremendous advantages to our customer, with more options and flexibility.”

For years, JetBlue’s website has made it easy for customers to book travel anywhere within the JetBlue network in just a few clicks. With this website enhancement, JetBlue is expanding the geographic reach of the site, allowing customers to book travel from within the JetBlue network to new international markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean – still with just a few easy clicks (a).

Aer Lingus

“Today’s announcement marks the continued development of Aer Lingus’ partnership with JetBlue, with a focus on providing customers with increased options from more U.S. markets to Ireland and other European destinations,” said Jack Foley, Aer Lingus’ Executive Vice President, North America. “Moreover, it reaffirms Aer Lingus’ commitment to providing low fares access for customers from new markets across the U.S.”

Now both jetblue.com and aerlingus.com, successful partners since 2008, offer customers the option to purchase tickets that include space on both carriers. Customers can fly from points within the JetBlue network to Boston or JFK, connect to Aer Lingus’ transatlantic service to Ireland, and then to over a dozen destinations across Europe.

American Airlines

“Our successful partnership with JetBlue has given our customers more travel options and has allowed us to grow in new markets,” said Virasb Vahidi, American’s Chief Commercial Officer. “With this new milestone of selling our tickets on each other’s website, our customers will benefit more from the strong networks of both airlines.”

Now, an American customer can buy AA tickets at jetblue.com, and a JetBlue customer can purchase JetBlue tickets at aa.com – giving customers of both carriers new sales channels from which to purchase tickets. The two carriers launched their partnership in March 2010 with an enhanced interline agreement, slot exchange and employee travel program. To date, the carriers have added new interline routes, instituted benefits to members of both carriers’ frequent flier programs and, with today’s announcement, allow customers to buy tickets on each others websites. To learn more about this partnership, go to: http://www.jetblue.com/flying-on-jetblue/airline-partners/american-airlines.asp.

Bookings are available to and from any of the 26 domestic JetBlue cities, and the 15 international American Airlines cities that are included in the carriers’ interline agreement. Furthermore, TrueBlue members are now able to rack up points on American’s flights between New York’s Kennedy Airport and Barcelona, Spain; Brussels, Belgium; Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, England; Madrid, Spain; Manchester, England; Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Rome, Italy; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Tokyo (Narita), Japan; Tokyo (Haneda), Japan; and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as American’s new non-stop service to Budapest, Hungary. Customers flying or connecting through Boston can also earn points when flying to London, England and Paris, France.

Cape Air

“The timing is perfect,” said Cape Air President Dave Bushy. “As our busy summer season approaches on Cape Cod and the Islands, as well as the Caribbean and Florida, the ease of booking the entire trip on-line, with direct baggage transfers, is a huge convenience for our passengers.”

Cape Air was JetBlue’s first airline partner dating back to 2007 when JetBlue began to market and sell Cape Air flights between Boston and Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Provincetown, Hyannis and Rutland, Vermont under a codeshare agreement. Today’s announcement of the interline capabilities of jetblue.com will provide customers with access to an expanded list of destinations in Cape Air’s Northeast U.S. network, as well as to its Caribbean network via San Juan, P.R. and to Key West, Florida via Fort Myers.

Other Interline Partners

JetBlue has interline agreements in place with six other airlines: EL AL Israel Airlines, Emirates, LAN Airlines, Lufthansa, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Although customers cannot yet use jetblue.com to book tickets that include space on those airlines, it expects to add more partners to the website over the coming year.

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