Thursday, 2 January 2014 00:00
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Qatar Airways yesterday increased capacity to Sri Lanka – with one of its triple-daily-flights to capital city Colombo, expanded from a narrow-bodied Airbus 320 to the airline’s flagship wide-bodied Boeing 777.
The larger Boeing 777 will offer flat-bed seats in Business class and passengers in every seat across the Business and Economy Class cabins will experience a fully interactive personal audio and video entertainment system.
Qatar Airways’ Boeing 777 service to Colombo – QR 658 will be operated in a two-class configuration of 356 seats in Economy and 24 seats in Business Class. The other two daily flights to the city will be served with the airline’s narrow-body A320 aircraft which can accommodate 132 passengers in Economy and 12 in Business Class.
Qatar Airways Country Manager Sri Lanka, Ajay Jacob said that the increase in capacity to Colombo will help in strengthening the airline’s position in the Sri Lankan market.
“Colombo remains a popular destination in the carrier’s rising Asia-Pacific network as we currently operate triple-daily-services to this city.
The added capacity means travellers to and from Colombo will have greater access and also an increasingly competitive product like the Boeing 777.”
An array of connecting destinations for passengers to and from Colombo over the airline’s Doha hub include Chicago, Kilimanjaro, Nairobi, Moscow, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Rome, Milan, Venice, New York, Washington and Montreal.
Added Jacob: “There are a significant number of Sri Lankan expatriates who are working in Qatar, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Additional seats will enable more passengers to travel with us, for leisure or on business.”
Qatar Airways was recently named Best Middle East Airline by readers of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific, for four consecutive years. The airline has also won the Skytrax Airline of The Year award two years in a row, 2011 and 2012.
Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 16 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 128 aircraft to 134 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas.
Over the next few weeks and months, the network will grow further with Sharjah and Dubai World Central, both in the UAE (1 March 2014), Larnaca, Cyprus (29 April), Philadelphia, USA (2 April 2014), Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Turkey (22 May 2014), Edinburgh, Scotland (28 May 2014), Miami, USA (10 June 2014) and Dallas/Fort Worth, USA (1 July 2014).
Doha-Colombo schedules: Effective 1 January 2014
Triple-Daily-Flights
Depart Doha QR 658 at 00:45 hrs, arrive Colombo at 07:40 hrs
Depart Colombo QR 659 at 09:10 hrs, arrive Doha at 11:30 hrs
Depart Doha QR 660 at 12:25 hrs, arrive Colombo at 19:40 hrs
Depart Colombo QR 661 at 20:40 hrs, arrive Doha at 23:20 hrs
Depart Doha QR 662 at 20:00 hrs, arrive Colombo at 03:15 hrs next day
Depart Colombo QR 663 at 04:15 hrs, arrive Doha 06:55 hrs
On 30 October 2013, Qatar Airways joined the oneworld Alliance, becoming the only major Gulf carrier to join a global airline alliance, enabling its customers to benefit from almost 1,000 airports in more than 150 countries, with 14,000 daily departures.
Award-winning carrier Qatar Airways was presented with three honours at the annual Skytrax 2013 World Airline Awards held during the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, France last June. The airline was awarded World’s Best Business Class, World’s Best Business Class Lounge and, for the second consecutive year, Best Airline Staff Service in the Middle East.
During the 2013 Dubai Air Show the airline placed orders for more than 60 new aircraft – a mixture of Boeing 777X and Airbus A330 Freighters. In total the airline has more than 280 aircraft on order worth more than US $50 billion. The airline will move into its new hub and home, Hamad International Airport from early 2014.
