THREE MORE AIRCRAFT IN A DAY AS QATAR AIRWAYS’ FLEET GROWS TO 139
(Posted 06th November 2014)
It is a rare day when an airline takes delivery of more than one aircraft a day but three at once surely is a feat worth talking about. Qatar Airways yesterday received three brand new aircraft from Boeing in Seattle, two Boeing B787 Dreamliners and one Boeing B777, bringing the airline’s fleet to 139 overall, an astonishing feat considering Qatar Airways is only 17 years in operation.
QR’s passengers from Eastern Africa, where the airline flies daily to Entebbe and Kigali, with traffic rights between the two, but also to Nairobi, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam, all destinations served with an Airbus A320, can look forward to have yet more destinations served out of Doha with the new B787 Dreamliner, which offers one of the most generous business class layouts in the skies with a 1x2x1 configuration, compared to the 2x2x2 most other airlines install to maximize revenues.
Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker, when receiving the aircraft at the new Hamad International Airport in Doha, had these comments: ‘We are very happy to receive three more of our most popular aircraft from Boeing all on the same day reinforcing the fact that this is the ‘year of the fleet’. The addition of the two 787s and one 777 ensures that we are able to continue with our commitment to offer our passengers the most comfortable experience in the sky when travelling with us. And we are very pleased to be able to work so closely with Boeing to ensure that our aircraft provide our passengers with the best possible on-board experience’.
After signing a purchase agreement with Boeing at the 2014 Farnborough Air Show for 100 of the newly developed B777X does the airline have a staggering 340 new aircraft on order, including the world’s largest passenger jet the Airbus A380, the latest technology Airbus A350XWB, B777’s, B787’s and Airbus A320’s.
As the first and only Gulf airline joining a global alliance, oneworld, does QR now offer a global reach of up to 150 countries, nearly 1.000 destinations and over 14.250 daily departures, giving their East African passengers a massive global reach when connecting to onward flights in Doha.
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