Qatar Airways is maintaining international route expansion plans despite the Gulf state being under diplomatic and economic sanctions from four neighbouring Middle East nations.
New flights are to be introduced between Doha and Sohar in Oman on August 8 and to Prague on August 21, both serves by Airbus A320s. Several more announcements are to follow shortly, according to the airline.
Qatar Airways recently launched a daily service to Dublin, with a Nice service starting today (Tuesday) followed by by flights to Skopje in Macedonia on July 17.
Group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Airways’ announcement today comes at a time when we are accelerating our global expansion plans by expediting the launch of these two new destinations.
“Qatar Airways is committed to connecting more people to more places, through our five-star hub, Hamad international airport, while supporting our global message of ‘Going Places Together’.”
Other new destinations planned for the remainder of this year and 2018 include Canberra, Chiang Mai, Rio de Janeiro; San Francisco and Santiago in Chile.
A total of 25 new destinations are being introduced from the Doha hub during 2017-18.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have given Qatar until today (Tuesday) to accept 13 demands or face further sanctions. An initial deadline of Sunday was extended by two days.
Qatar denies accusations of destabilising the region by supporting extremism and terrorism and has called for international condemnation.