Qatar Airways to launch Belgrade flights

Qatar Airways heading to Belgrade in 2012

Days after announcing that Qatar Airways will launch flights to Zagreb, the airline’s CEO, Akbar Al Baker, says the airline will also inaugurate services to Belgrade in 2012. “We are also planning to go to Perth, Zagreb, Belgrade, Kiev, Helsinki, St. Petersburg and many other destinations within the next twelve months. Fifteen new destinations in the next twelve months”, Al Baker told the weekly “Arabian Business”. The new route announcement raises the possibility that the service to Zagreb will operate with a stop in Belgrade. Similarly, within the region, the Qatari national carrier operates flights to Sofia via Bucharest.

The new destinations will be progressively introduced from January 2012. The new flights to the EX-YU region are likely to coincide with the carrier’s launch of its Doha - Perth service in July. Once Qatar Airways commences flights to Belgrade, it will be in direct competition with the low cost Flydubai which currently operates four weekly flights to the Serbian capital. The fight will be on to take the much more lucrative transiting passengers, especially to Australia.

Qatar Airways continues to focus on “relentless expansion”, CEO Al Baker said. “On average, every eighteen days it is growing by one new aircraft”, he added. Qatar Airways currently operates flights to 109 cities with a fleet of 96 aircraft with a further 133 orders.

Zagreb Airport strike cancelled

Good news for passengers travelling to and from Zagreb today. The airport’s management and unions have made an agreement to make changes to the collective agreement, cancelling all planned strikes.