 Qatar Airways : Qatar Airways (Arabic: القطرية) is an airline based in Doha, Qatar. It operates a hub and spoke network based in Doha, linking 78 international destinations. It is one of only five airlines in the world with a Five Star ranking for service and excellence awarded by Skytrax, an independent aviation industry monitoring agency. Skytrax also named Qatar Airways’ cabin crew as Best in the Middle East for the fourth year running in 2006 and second best worldwide following a survey of more than 12 million passengers. In 2007, Qatar Airways was awarded as the best Middle Eastern airline for the second year running, and the fourth best airline worldwide. Qatar Airways was awarded the best first class onboard during the 2007 Skytrax awards.
History
Qatar Airways was created in November 1993 and started operations in January of the following year. It was originally owned by a Qatar royal family but launched to a more "western" administrative and financial system.
Destinations
Airbus A330Main article: Qatar Airways destinations
Qatar Airways operates passenger flights to 78 world-wide destinations.
The three newest destinations in the network are Washington DC (USA), Newark (USA) and Geneva (Switzerland).
Qatar Airways flights into the North American market began on June 26, 2007 with four-times-weekly flights to Newark using a new A330-200 aircraft via Geneva, a new European destination for the airline. Daily nonstop flights to Washington DC started on July 19, 2007, with an A340-600HGW.
Starting summer 2007, flights to Madrid has been upgraded to the newer A330-200 aircraft, replacing the A300-600R on the route. Doha-Berlin (TXL) flights has also been upgraded to widebody aircraft instead of the Airbus A319LR, with an increase in weekly frequency.
Qatar Airways applied to the Australian Government to fly daily from Doha to Sydney and Melbourne but this was initially rejected. The airline was however successful in Mid-March 2007 and won rights to fly daily to Melbourne. In return, the government of Qatar has to allow an Australian airline to fly to Doha with the same regularity. Daily service to an additional Australian city, starting in 2008, is also due to be announced.
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