Qatar Airways to start flying to Serbia and Poland

Qatar Airways announced further expansion to its European network with the launch of scheduled flights to Serbia and Poland by the end of the year taking the airline’s coverage across the Continent to 32 destinations. Services to the previously announced destination of Belgrade, capital of Serbia, have been confirmed for a November 20 start with a thrice-weekly schedule via Ankara. Two weeks later, beginning December 5, the airline will add the Polish capital Warsaw to its rapidly-growing European network operating flights four-times-a-week. News of the expansion follows this week’s announcement by Qatar Airways that it will begin daily flights to Chicago – the carrier’s fourth USA gateway – from April 10 next year. Both the Belgrade and Warsaw routes will be operated from Qatar Airways’ Doha hub with an Airbus A320 configured in two classes – 12 seats in Business and 132 in Economy. Each seat features an interactive audio and video entertainment system offering hundreds of movies, TV programmes and music channels. Following route launches to European capital cities in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Croatia this year, together with seven destinations on the Continent during 2011, Qatar Airways has given much attention to an expansion drive across Europe with a particular focus on eastern Europe. Warsaw is one of Europe’s oldest cities – Poland’s largest city and economic, political and cultural centre. Rich in culture, home to historic palaces and modern architecture, many companies have turned their attention to setting up base in Warsaw due to the huge investment benefits offered by the Polish government. Warsaw was also one of the cities that hosted the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships held in Poland and Ukraine this summer. Belgrade, among the largest cities in south eastern Europe, has a long tradition of culture, sport, history and architecture making it a desirable city to visit on the Continent. Belgrade has little exposure to long-haul markets due to lack of air capacity.