Qatar Airways’ new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft is parked after its first arrival at Zurich Airport yesterday.
Doha: Qatar Airways has embarked on its Boeing 787 European expansion with the deployment of the next-generation aircraft on three additional routes – Munich, Zurich and Frankfurt.
The carrier has started flying the Dreamliner on the Munich route four-times-a-week. With the service yesterday Qatar Airways became the first airline to fly a commercial flight of a Boeing 787 to Switzerland. The Dreamliner service to Zurich route will be three-times-a-week.
Beginning February 1, one of the double daily services to Frankfurt will be served by a Boeing 787. February 1 also signals an increase of 787 frequency on the Munich and Zurich routes to daily.
All three destinations are currently operated with a mixed Airbus fleet.
The addition of the German-speaking cities to the already established 787 on one of the five daily London Heathrow flights takes to four the number of European routes featuring the aircraft.
Also starting February 1, Qatar Airways will deploy a 787 on all daily flights from Doha to Perth. Qatar Airways will be the first airline to operate Dreamliner flights to and from Australia.
It currently operates four 787s, with a further 56 pending delivery. The airline took delivery of its first Boeing 787 in November.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “As an airline we are always striving to enhance passenger experience in the skies by offering improved connectivity with convenient scheduling and an all-round new in-flight product which makes a significant impact on travel decisions.
“In addition to introducing new routes, we are also relentlessly focused on improving the passenger experience when travelling with Qatar Airways. That is why there is so much hype around our Boeing 787, it offers the travelling public a second-to-none flying experience straight through from comfort, to entertainment to gastronomy.”
Qatar Airways’ Dreamliner aircraft features 254 custom-made seats across its Business and Economy Class cabins with specially designed interiors, together with a unique in-flight entertainment system offering over 1,000 audio and video fully interactive programming options. The Business cabin features 22 seats in a 1–2–1 layout while Economy has 232 seats in a 3–3–3 configuration.
The Peninsula
