Qatar Airways marks 5 years of flying to Washington

Qatar Airways marked five years of flying to America's capital city last week. The airline began services to Washington DC on July 19, 2007, the Doha headquartered carrier said Tuesday. The fifth anniversary comes after the carrier was recently named the World’s Best Airline for the second year running at the prestigious annual Skytrax awards. Qatar Airways also celebrated five years of service to New York last month – the airline's first US gateway. Both routes are served non-stop and daily from Qatar Airways’ hub in Doha, Qatar, offering passengers superior levels of hospitality. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said, "This year marks an important anniversary on the airline’s route map, with the celebration of two key US routes of New York and Washington which seamlessly connect passengers from West to East via Doha." Washington – Doha non-stop service is approximately 12 hours flying time and is operated with the airline’s flagship Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, in a 2–2–2 cabin configuration offering 42 seats in Business Class, and in a 3-3-3 configuration with a total of 293 seats in Economy. Qatar Airways currently flies from six gateways in the Americas, including Washington, Houston, New York, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo – all daily – and Montreal thrice-weekly. With the airline's diverse range of destinations, passengers from the US, Canada or South America can connect onwards to over 85 destinations across India, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Australia via Doha. Qatar Airways Senior Vice President for the Americas, Bart Vos said, "The airline's operations in the USA have seen exceptional growth and on the occasion of this fifth anniversary milestone, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their continued support, loyalty and appreciation of our award-winning Five Star in-flight service and product." As part of the airline's expansion plans and the increasing reach of its network, later this summer its modern and young fleet will receive a boost with the addition of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Qatar Airways, which is set to receive five 787s by the end of the year, will be the Middle East launch customer of the aircraft. In November 2007, the airline took delivery of its first Boeing aircraft, a 777, which now forms the backbone of the long-haul fleet. With the impending arrival of the Dreamliner into the airline’s fleet, Qatar Airways is investing heavily in the new generation aircraft, which is able to open up exciting new opportunities with its capacity, the carrier said.