Qatar’s North American trio

QATAR Airways’ cargo division will link Doha (Qatar) to North America via Luxembourg on three new 777F services.

Atlanta and Houston (both US) will be served with twice-weekly flights from 2 November, while the Toronto (Canada) services will begin on 7 November. In North America, Qatar Airways currently operates dedicated freighters only to Chicago (US).

The carrier also flies daily non-stop passenger services to Houston, New York and Washington (all US) together with thrice-weekly flights to Montreal (Canada), offering cargo space in the belly.

In addition, extra cargo flights will operate to Bahrain, Chicago, Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dammam (Saudi Arabia), Hong Kong (China) and Tehran (Iran) from 30 October.

Qatar Airways’ passenger services to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) will be supplemented with a weekly cargo flight from 30 October.

Over the past few months, Qatar Airways Cargo has significantly ramped up its expansion with increased frequencies and the order for a further three 777 freighters. Recent frequency increases have been implemented to Bengaluru (India), Hanoi (Vietnam), Kozhikode (India) and Kuwait.

“With the recent completion of our 35 per cent stake in Cargolux, we have increased our focus on freighter operations, which ties seamlessly into the airline’s strategy to have as many connecting points across the globe from our Doha hub,” Qatar Airways Group chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker, said. “We have identified tremendous route expansion opportunities around the world, including North America where the freighter market is huge.”

Qatar Airways Cargo currently has a fleet of three Airbus A300-600s and two 777 freighters. Qatar Airways has ordered 80 A350s, 24 A320s, 60 787s and 40 777s, with deliveries of the latter having started in November 2007.