Qatar Airways launches Doha-Venice route

Qatar Airways is to continue its European expansion with the Italian city of Venice set to join the airline’s growing network in June. Venice will become Qatar Airways’ third gateway in Italy after Milan and Rome, raising the airline’s Italian presence to 21 flights a week. “Venice is a vibrant city with incredible appeal among leisure and business travellers, and we are confident that our new daily flights will be equally successful as our daily services to Rome and Milan,” said Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker. “Italy is a large country where international traffic focuses mostly on Rome and Milan. By opening up the Venice route, it is very much in line with our long-term strategy of tapping into economically viable underserved markets. Venice has little long-haul access, therefore we are confident of a successful and profitable operation to this part of Italy.” Venice becomes the Doha-based airline’s 26th European destination in a period of growth, which has seen seven new routes introduced on the continent. Over the past 12 months, Qatar Airways has launched flights to Ankara, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Nice, Bucharest, Budapest, Brussels - the latter three in January alone. From 6 March, scheduled services begin to the German automobile manufacturing city of Stuttgart.