Qatar Airways resumes London flights with the B787 Dreamliner

QATAR AIRWAYS RESUMES B787 FLIGHTS TO LONDON HEATHROW

Qatar Airways’ sales teams have been blitzing the East African markets of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda with news, that the airline has resumed their Doha to London flights with the B787 Dreamliner, the first B787 destination outside the Gulf since the FAA and global regulators lifted the flight ban on this aircraft type.

It is understood that all 5 of the B787’s presently in service with Qatar Airways have been put back into service and that the airline will, as initially planned, deploy the new birds on the routes to Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich over the coming weeks. The return of the B787’s has also seen the fifth daily flight between Doha and London restored, which for the time of the grounding of the aircraft had to be shelved.

The airline’s CEO Akbar Al Baker, was in a media release issued a few hours ago quoted as having said: ‘The Doha – Heathrow route is one of our most popular international services, and so I’m thrilled that our Dreamliners are back in the skies, providing our passengers with an unparalleled level of service and comfort to and from the UK. I have always hailed the Dreamliner as the state-of-the-art aircraft destined to change the way people travel. After a setback that not only affected our own worldwide operations, but those of many carriers worldwide, we look forward to now deploying the Dreamliner on other key routes over the coming weeks’.

Qatar Airways’ B787 is offering the most comfortable cabin configuration presently available on any of the 51 B787 Dreamliners in service, with a Business Class layout of 1 x 2 x 1 using the most advanced flat bed chairs on the market and an Economy Class layout of 3 x 3 x 3. All B787’s are ‘wired’ with full internet connectivity inflight, allowing passengers to browse the web, send and receive emails by using their laptops, tablets or smart phone devices.

The 5 star airline connects Uganda and Rwanda with daily flights between Doha and Entebbe / Kigali and also flies twice a day to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, with one flight routing via Kilimanjaro International. QR recently announced the addition of Addis Ababa from the 18th of September onwards as its sixth destination in the wider Eastern African region. Planned flights to Mombasa and Zanzibar are according to a regular source at Qatar Airways still on the drawing board through no dates have been set after postponing the planned launch last year in what was generally seen as a reaction to failed promises on 5th freedom traffic rights on part of the Kenyan authorities. From Doha East African travelers can connect to over 120 destinations worldwide, flying on one of the youngest fleets in the skies. Qatar Airways was the Gulf region’s launch customer for Boeing’s latest aircraft and is currently in negotiations to become launch customer too for the upgraded B777X.

(One of QR’s B787 Dreamliners’ seen landing at London Heathrow – picture courtesy of Qatar Airways)