While almost all airlines are grounding fleets and countries continuing to impose border restrictions due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the Qatar Airways has confirmed its commitment to keep a large part of their route network connected.
The latest service update by the airways says “We appreciate this is a difficult time and that many people around the world are trying to find a way to get home. At Qatar Airways, we continue to operate more than 150 flights per day, so that people can get home safely to their loved ones”.
As of 24th March, Qatar Airways confirmed operating services to more than 70 cities worldwide.
“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”, the airline said in its statement.
Several other airlines have grounded their entire fleets across the world, but Qatar Airways continues to maintain flexibility to adjust its aircraft type on certain routes, particularly those to Europe. Among its wide-body fleet are the a350s, a330s, a380s, Boeing 777s and 787 Dreamliner.
But, unlike other airlines that operate a less diverse fleet, Qatar Airways has been able to adjust operations with reduced demand. The airline also operates every variant of the smaller a320-family aircraft, which gives room for potential future equipment flexibility to keep some low-demand operations operational.
Qatar Airways is offering its passengers the option of a ticket refund, and for those who wish to receive a travel voucher for future use, passengers can get complete value of their ticket and an additional 10 percent of fare cost as an added value offer.
The airline is also reinstating is earlier suspended flights to France and Germany, apart from upgrading the existing flights to larger aircraft carrying the tag ‘TakingYouHome’.
