Qatar airways flight cancellation: airline adds routes during coronavirus pandemic - Travel News

Mar 27, 2020

They just added 48,000 extra seats to main Australian gateways.

Qatar Airways will add extra routes during the coronavirus pandemic to assist passengers who have been left stranded by the COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The company is one of only a handful of major airlines who have not suspended flights. In fact, in a move that bucks the trend set by most major airlines, rather than cancellations to their flight schedule, they’ll be adding an extra 48,000 seats (up from the announcement of 10,000 extra seats yesterday) to their network, in the main Australian gateways of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

The additional seats are set to be added from March 29 to help stranded passengers get home. The airline will operate the following flights:

* Daily service to Brisbane (Boeing 777-300ER)
* Double daily service to Perth (Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300ER)
* Double daily service to Melbourne (Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 777-300ER)
* Triple daily service to Sydney (Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 777-300ER)

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We know there are many people who want to be with their families and loved ones during this difficult time. We are thankful to the Australian Government, Airports and staff for their support in helping us to add additional flights to get people home, and in particular, to bring flights to Brisbane.”

Qatar Airways will also be providing charter services to Europe and US from Asia; adding extra flights to Paris and Dublin; upgrading their services to Frankfurt, and London Heathrow utilise the Airbus 380; as well as operating one-off services from destinations such as Phnom Penh, Denpasar, Manila and Kuala Lumpur.

“We are constantly reviewing our operations to see where there is more demand and requests, and wherever possible we will add more flights or bigger aircraft. This is a challenging time for the aviation industry and we are thankful to airports and authorities and their staff around the world for their incredible efforts to help us get passengers home.”

According to the airline’s data, 72% of passengers carried on March 24 were nationals returning to their country of origin. Qatar Airways is currently operating flights to 75 destinations*, though they note that this number may reduce as nations introduce tighter restrictions.

A full list of the airlines operational routes is available here.