Doh: Qatar Airways is continuing to keeping the skies open and getting as many people home as it possibly can in these challenging times. The multiple award-winning airline has flown over 100,000 passengers in the last seven days.
“Qatar Airways has flown more than 100,000 passengers home in the last seven days while 72 percent of passengers carried on 24 March were nationals flying to their country of origin,” said Qatar Airways in a statement yesterday.
“Our state-of-the-art aircraft with their advanced air filter systems, combined with strict bio-security screening of our staff mean that it can continue operating a significant number of flights to reunite stranded passengers with their loved ones,” it said.
Figures for the last seven days show load factors of over 80 percent for flights to the UK, France and Germany, with a fall to 36 percent for outbound services from those countries, illustrating the demand for homeward travel.
“Our commitment to getting people home stepped up on March 24 with 10,000 extra seats added to its network; provision of charter services to Europe and the US from Asia; addition of extra flights to Paris, Perth and Dublin from Doha and upgrading services to Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Perth with the addition of the Airbus A380 on those routes,” said Qatar Airways.
“Working with embassies around the world, the airline has operated one-off services from destinations such as Phnom Penh, Denpasar, Manila and Kuala Lumpur to Europe. More than 5,000 passengers were flown home by these services over the last week, a number that is expected to more than triple over the next week.
Qatar Airways is currently operating flights to 75 destinations, though this number may reduce as nations introduce tighter restrictions, said the airline.