Doha, 03 September 2020 (QNA)

Qatar Airways announced Wednesday that it will resume flights to five destinations during September: Sialkot, Houston, Kathmandu, Mogadishu and

Philadelphia.

By mid-September, the national carrier of the State of Qatar will operate over 650 weekly flights to more than 85 destinations.

The airline said in a statement that it will continue to lead the industry in providing global connectivity by resuming flights to just over half the destinations it operated pre-COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, Qatar Airways network has never fallen below 30 destinations with continuous services to five continents.

According to the statement, the airlines variety of fuel-efficient aircraft and strategic network management has also enabled it to increase frequencies in the following destinations, providing more flexible travel options to passengers: Ankara, Baghdad, Basra, Djibouti, Erbil, Ho Chi Minh City, London Heathrow, New York JFK and Sulaymaniyah.

HE Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, said: “The gradual rebuilding of our network has been focused on strengthening connections between our hub in Doha and key gateways around the world as well as major business and leisure destinations.”

He indicated that the recovery of international travel will take time but returning to over 50% of the airline’s pre-COVID-19 network is a significant milestone. “Restoring passenger confidence is key, and we are proud to lead the industry by offering one of the most flexible and generous booking policies that enables customers to plan their travel with confidence. By continuing to fly during the pandemic while others stopped,” he said.

“We also remain in close contact with Australian authorities regarding flight restrictions as ensuring the ongoing repatriation of passengers to the country is becoming increasingly challenging. Despite the restrictions on passengers allowed to be carried into the country, we continue to fulfil our mission to facilitate ongoing repatriation for as many people as possible by operating a robust Australian network to five cities, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne (currently no inbound passengers permitted), Perth and Sydney, offering more flights than any other international airline,” HE Al Baker added.

“While other airlines grounded operations, we maintained our flights, carrying almost 40% of all international travellers to and from Australia between April and June 2020, helping to take over 180,000 Australian and international travellers home since the start of the crisis. These flights have also helped maintain vital supply chains for Australian businesses with our airline carrying over 15,000 tonnes of Australian goods since 1 March 2020,” he noted.