DOHA: Qatar Airways (QA) concluded a successful appearance at the world’s largest travel and tourism fair, ITB Berlin, having made a significant network announcement while debuting its new cutting-edge technology exhibition stand to hundreds of travel professionals from around the world.
On the first day of ITB, QA hosted a capacity crowd of over 200 international journalists and announced network expansion. It will soon serve five new cities in Europe — Pisa (Italy); Sarajevo (Bosnia); Helsinki (Finland); Skopje (Macedonia); and Nice (France).
QA will also add six new destinations in Africa: Marrakech (Morocco); Windhoek (Namibia); Seychelles (Indian Ocean); Douala (Cameroon); Libreville (Gabon); and Lusaka (Zambia) and three new destinations in Asia and the South West Pacific: Auckland (New Zealand); and Krabi and Chiang Mai (Thailand).
Akbar Al Baker, Group Chief Executive, QA, said: “QA continues to be the fastest-growing airline in the history of aviation, a distinction we wear proudly. We continue to connect the world, one flight at a time, and the public continues to respond to our extraordinary service.
“Two years ago, we predicted we would grow to 170 destinations, and we are on track. Every employee of the airline has the same mission: To serve our passengers with extraordinary service so they continue to choose QA, and tell their friends and family to choose us.
“With our ever-growing route network, we are making it easy for friends and family to connect and explore new places for business or pleasure. We want our passengers to have wonderful journeys and we want to go more places together with them.”
QA also unveiled a new exhibition stand at ITB Berlin, offering the signature elements travel and tourism professionals want to see and experience, such as Business Class and First Class seat displays and new features, including an interactive global route network display and a holographic A350 model controlled through with ‘swipe’ or ‘gesture’ technology. This is the first known use of both technologies together by an airline.
Al Baker hosted dignitaries, officials and visitors at the stand for meetings, closed door discussions and hands-on demonstrations of QA seats on display. The Peninsula
