News

Qatar Airways set for “imminent” A380 order

19 Jan 2011 by BusinessTraveller
Local media reports quote Qatar’s CEO Akbar Al Baker as saying that the carrier will soon place a “large” order for A380 aircraft. Al Baker was speaking at the launch of Qatar’s new route to Bucharest and Budapest. Website arabianbusiness.com quotes Al Baker as saying that “We have five A380s on order and imminently we will order another large number of the same aircraft”. There has been no official confirmation from Qatar’s head office, possibly as any such announcement may be held back for this year’s Paris Air Show in June. Rivals Emirates increased its A380 orders by a further 32 aircraft last year, taking its total orders of the superjumbo to 90, and while it’s unlikely Qatar would announce an order of this magnitude, it is logical that the carrier would look to increase its future A380 fleet for use on routes such as London, Paris, New York and possibly destinations in Asia and Australia. Meanwhile Qatar Airways has launched flights to Budapest and Bucharest this week. The carrier is hedging its bets by routing the Budapest service via Bucharest, and using Airbus A320s rather than larger aircraft at its disposal, but readers can expect the service to split into stand alone routes if successful. The current schedule see flight QR943 departing Doha at 0815 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, landing in Bucharest at 1220, before taking off again at 1320 and landing in Budapest at 1345. The return leg QR944 leaves Budapest at 1500, landing in Bucharest at 1725, then departing the Romanian city at 1825 and landing back in Doha at 2355. Neither of Qatar’s main Middle Eastern rivals Etihad nor Emirates currently serve either of these destinations. For more information visit qatarairways.com. Report by Mark Caswell
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