Qatar Airways begins 4 times weekly services to Hangzhou in China

During the press conference Al Baker also stressed that Doha's role as a future hub for global travellers would be greatly enhanced. "By joining the oneworld alliance as well as opening the new state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport next year, Qatar Airways is in a great position for presenting a modern hub for business and leisure travelers around the world." On October 30, 2013, Qatar Airways joined the oneworld global alliance, becoming the only major Gulf carrier to join a global airline alliance, enabling its customers to benefit from almost a thousand airports in more than 150 countries, with 14,000 daily departures. Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 16 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 128 aircraft to 134 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas. In 2013, Qatar Airways has launched eleven destinations to date - Gassim (Saudi Arabia), Najaf (Iraq), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Chicago (USA), Salalah (Oman), Basra (Iraq), Sulaymaniyah (Iraq), Chengdu (China), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Ta'if (Saudi Arabia) and most recently Clark Manila International Airport (Philippines). Over the next few weeks and months, the network will grow further Sharjah and Dubai World Central, both in the UAE (March 1, 2014), Philadelphia, USA (April 2, 2014), Larnaca, Cyprus (April 29, 2014), Sabiha Gokcen Airport, Turkey (May 22, 2014), Edinburgh, Scotland (May 28, 2014) Miami, USA (June 10, 2014) and Dallas, USA (1 July, 2014).