Qatar Airways adds two more Asia Pacific destinations

Qatar Airways will add two more Asia Pacific destinations to its route map in 2017, as part of a major expansion of its network.

The Doha-based airline will commence its first ever flights to the Indonesian city of Medan and the Australian capital Canberra in 2017. These are two of the eight new destinations announced by Qatar Airways this week, along with Dublin, Las Vegas, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and the Saudi Arabian cities of Tabuk and Yanbu.

These add to the previously-announced 2017 services to Auckland, Sarajevo, Skopje, Libreville, Nice, Chiang Mai and Douala, meaning that Qatar Airways will launch a total of 15 new destinations next year, including four in the Asia Pacific region.

“With today’s network announcement, we will be able to connect more people to more places than any other Gulf airline, and we will ensure our passengers will delight in the journey. At Qatar Airways, we are going places together with our passengers, and we look forward to welcoming these new destinations,” said the airline’s group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker.

Details of the new routes, such as launch dates and flight frequencies, have not yet been announced. But for both Asia Pacific airports the new flights mark major wins. Medan’s Kualanamu International Airport does not currently receive any scheduled long-haul flights, although Saudia and Garuda Indonesia operate special pilgrimage flights between Saudi Arabia’s holy cities and the Sumatran hub. And Qatar Airways will become only the second international carrier flying to Canberra Airport, following the launch of Singapore Airlines’ services earlier this year.

Medan will become Qatar Airways’ third Indonesian destination after Jakarta and Bali, and Canberra will mark the airline’s fifth Australian hub, joining Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.