Qatar Airways announces developments

Qatar Airways announced new in-flight entertainment and cargo operations today aboard its Boeing aircraft. Thales has been selected to supply the airline its TopSeries system, which includes passenger touch-screen displays, interface options for personal electronic devices and 3D audio technology. Broadband connectivity will be integrated to the IFE systems to allow access to news, applications and social network sites and it will all be controlled by Thales’ new passenger handset controller. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the in-flight offering on the airline’s B787 fleet will be a step beyond what is currently available in the sky. The airline also launched its cargo operations today, using a new Boeing B777 Freighter from Doha to Amsterdam. The new aircraft has a payload capacity of 102 metric tons and will operate to several cargo points including Amsterdam, Lahore, Dubai, Karachi, Chennai, Sialkot, Frankfurt, Amman and Hong Kong. In the future it will be used on long-haul routes connecting East and West transportation lines from Hong Kong to the United States. “It’s an opportune time to be introducing more cargo capacity to our fleet as the State of Qatar is growing at a phenomenal pace, as are other parts of the Gulf region, and we are primed to take advantage of this growth,” explained Al Baker. “With a total of three new triple seven freighters joining the fleet in a little over 12 months, the airline’s dedicated cargo capacity will effectively quadruple in size,” he added.