Qatar Airways’ Opens London Lounge, Eyes Major 2012 Expansion

Qatar Airways launches its premium lounge at London Heathrow which marks the beginning of another eventful year for the Doha based airline. 2012 will be all about capacity enhancement on existing routes and addition of new routes on the Qatar’s network.

The Doha-based Qatar Airways has launched its new premium lounge for first and business class travellers at Terminal 4 of the London’s Heathrow Airport.

The premium lounge has been designed like a boutique hotel instead of the traditional lounge facility for an airline at the airports, and is staffed with employees hired from five star hotels and restaurants. The lounge has a capacity to house 90 passengers and features a theatre-style Global Brasserie kitchen, innovative Delicatessen, Signature Martini bar, private shower services, heated floors and mirrors, hotel-style towels, branded toiletries, etc.

The free Wi-Fi network and discreet power sockets at each seat are other facilities provided to the passengers booking tickets for on Qatar flights to London from Doha, and return.

At the launch of this premium lounge, the CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar al-Baker said: “The lounge is the latest development in our rapidly expanding global route network and we are eyeing opportunities to open further airport lounges in destinations where we operate more than two frequencies a day”.

Qatar’s 2012 Route Expansion Plan

The airline has announced additional capacity for its Heathrow – Doha route by increasing the present four flights to five, effective March 25. This will considerably add to the daily inventory of economy class tickets for passengers looking for cheap flights to London with the airline.

More importantly, in the year 2012, the airline is planning to operate several new flight routes. The expansion begins with Baku in Azerbaijan and Tbilisi in Georgia with flights launching on February 1. This will be soon followed by flight to Kigali in Rwanda on March 21; Zagreb, Croatia on May 9 and Perth, Western Australia on July 3. The dates for flights to Gassim (Saudi Arabia), Helsinki (Finland), Mombasa (Kenya) and Zanzibar (Tanzania) are yet to be declared.

Operations to Perth is set realise Qatar’s capacity enhancement goal for Australia that the airline has been considering since it launched direct flights to Melbourne in December 2009. Flights to Perth will use Boeing 777 with two class configuration – 42 Seats for Business and 217 economy class.

Qatar Plans to Operate First Dreamliner from Heathrow

Qatar Airways is aiming to become the first airline to operate the Boeing 787 from the UK. Boeing 787 Dreamliner is considered to be unbeatable in terms of fuel efficiency and passengers can expect that airlines may pass on the fuel cost saving in the form of cheap flight tickets to them.

The Dreamliner will be configured with two travel classes – business class for luxury seekers and economy class for passengers looking for comparatively cheap flights tickets with the airline.

Out of five flights to London, the airline will be offering one daily flight with the Dreamliner later in 2012. The airline is scheduled to get the delivery of its first 787 in the coming summer and will make London as its first destination outside the Gulf.

Qatar Airways to Launch Flights to Libyan Port City of Benghazi

Qatar Airways will start operating flights to Benghazi from November 1st 2011. Benghazi is Libya's second largest city and is a renowned economic hub of the region.

The airline will offer four flights in a week, non-stop from Doha airport.

This latest launch of Qatar Airways will take the number of destination launches by Qatar Airways to 15 in the current year.

Benghazi, Libya’s north-eastern Mediterranean port city is a key destination for trade and exports with industries like refining, food processing, cement production and tuna fishing scattered all throughout the region. Qatar Airways hopes to serve this segment of the market apart from serving leisure vacationers who go for cheap flight tickets.

Qatar Airways has a well established presence in the region with the airline serving the capital city of Tripoli for few years now. Currently, the airline has abandoned flights to Tripoli due to the political situation. However, the airline hopes to resume the flight services to the Libyan capital soon enough.

The five-star airline will ply an Airbus A320 dual configuration aircraft on the new route. The aircraft will feature 12 seats for travellers who seek the lavishness of the first class and 132 economy class seats fro those prefer booking cheap flight tickets for their travel.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker was delighted with the development and welcomed the new addition to the airline’s wide network. He spoke of Benghazi as a primarily business destination that remains underserved by airlines.

Emirates, Qatar and Etihad Jack up flights to Manchester City

Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are doing exactly the opposite of what British Airways did! While BA pulled its operations out of Manchester, all three Arabian giants are jacking up their operations in Manchester.

Emirates is leading the pack with the announcement of the third daily flight to Manchester, while both Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways have daily double flights to the city.

Super success of Emirates’ superjumbo services from Manchester seems to have woken up the giants from their slumber.

“Manchester is a real success story. To be adding a third flight just months after introducing our 517-seat A380 superjumbo to the route reflects surging demand for our flights in and out of the north west of England," Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe & Russian Federation was quoted as stating in the Emirates’ press release.

However, the story seems to be completely different when seen from British Airways perspective. BA scrapped its long-haul flights from Manchester airport in 2008 in favour of London Heathrow. And even as carriers like Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Singapore Airlines operate long-haul services from Manchester; BA says it has no plans of revising the model.

Emirates surely do not agree with BA as it builds up its fleet of 90 A380s, and seeks to direct price-conscious ticket buyers through Dubai. Ticket on cheap flights is what people gain by this move of the airline. The increased services really escalate the chances of passengers, who need to travel, of grabbing tickets on cheap flights.

Qatar and Etihad aren’t too behind as Qatar has orders for more than 170 jetliners and Etihad has orders for 100.

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Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways has been provided with a five star rating by Skytrax which means that it is amongst the very few luxury airlines in the world. Its initiative of using cleaner fuel is quite a good gesture towards the environment.

Official Website: The website www.qatarairways.com is a useful guide for searching booking information, airfares and the different cheap airfare offers put up by the airline at frequent intervals.

Address: Qatar Airways, 1 Cluny Mews, West Kensington, London SW5 9EG, United Kingdom

Find cheap flights offers of Qatar Airways from UK Airports.