Qatar Airways ups capacity to Copenhagen and Barcelona

Qatar Airways is to increase capacity on its Copenhagen and Barcelona routes, effective 27 March — the start of the Northern Summer 2011 flying schedules.

With flights to the Danish capital increasing to daily and a wide body Airbus A330 being deployed to the Mediterranean port city, the capacity rise marks a sharp increase on the two routes launched within the past nine months.

The non-stop Doha-Copenhagen route, currently served six-times-a-week, will rise to daily with the introduction of one extra flight operating every Thursday. Services to Copenhagen were launched in March 2010.

From four-flights-a-week at the time of launch using narrow body Airbus A319 aircraft, the route has been upgraded in recent months with additional frequency and the much bigger A330.

The Doha-Barcelona route, launched only in June last year, is currently operated with a narrow-body Airbus A319 aircraft. The introduction of an A330, will more than double seat capacity on each of the daily Barcelona flights. The capacity hikes come at a time when Qatar Airways is concentrating much of its international expansion across Europe during the first quarter of 2011.

Over the next three months, the Doha-based airline will begin flights to the Romanian capital Bucharest (17 January); the capital city of Hungary, Budapest (17 January); Belgium’s capital Brussels (31 January); and the German car manufacturing centre of Stuttgart (6 March).

The Syrian city of Aleppo will be the airline’s 100th destination, which will launch on 6 April.

The airline is continuing its aggressive expansion plan set out at its 1997 launch. It plans to serve 120 key business and leisure destinations worldwide with a fleet of 120 aircraft by 2013.

Qatar Airways launches Boeing 777 on Madrid route

QATAR Airways is now operating its flagship Boeing 777 aircraft on its daily non-stop Doha-Madrid route.

The Boeing 777-300 Extended Range aircraft, featuring 42 seats in Business Class and 293 in Economy, offers more capacity than the Airbus A330s which were previously operating the route.

The two-class Boeing 777 offers Business Class seating in a 2–2–2 configuration, each with a seat pitch of 78-inches or 6.5ft of leg room. Each seat converts into 180 degree horizontal flat beds.

The aircraft also features a generous 3–3–3 configuration in Economy with up to 34-inch seat pitch. All seats provide personal touch screen seat back television screens with more than 900 interactive audio and video entertainment options, regardless of which class passengers are travelling in.