Qatar Airways marks six years of operations in South Africa

The Boeing 777 is Qatar Airlines flagship long-haul aircraft.

The carrier, which began flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town in January 2005, celebrated with passengers at both airports with food and drinks.

Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker said: "Our South African operations have matured over the years to become one of our most successful in Africa.

"We are extremely pleased with the success of both our South African routes. Last year's FIFA World Cup gave the people of South Africa a chance to showcase their beautiful country to the world and, as a result, we have seen a surge in business and leisure traffic to the region."

Qatar Airways currently operates 11 services a week to South Africa, including daily flights to Johannesburg, with four of the services flying onwards to Cape Town.

The Qatar connections

For passengers travelling to and from South Africa, Qatar Airways offers connections over its Doha hub covering cities across many parts of the world, including London, Paris, Istanbul, Delhi, Shanghai and Tokyo.

In March 2009, the South African services were given a boost with increased capacity when the airline introduced its flagship long-haul aircraft, the Boeing 777 on the routes.

The aircraft features 42 seats in Business Class and up to 293 in Economy. Qatar Airways' award-winning Business Class features spacious seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, with a pitch of 78 inches and 180-degree fully lie-flat beds.

The airline's Economy seat is the most spacious of any airline, with a pitch of up to 34 inches in a 3-3-3 configuration.

Qatar Airways has begun 2011 with three new route launches in January alone - Bucharest, Budapest and Brussels, with the European expansion continuing on March 6 when flights are launched to the German city of Stuttgart.

The airline has placed orders for 60 Boeing 787s.

The Doha-based carrier will reach its 100th network point on April 6 with the launch of scheduled flights to the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Qatar Airways offers an extensive route map of 98 key business and leisure destinations spanning Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America. Among the award-winning airline's destinations from Doha are daily non-stop flights to Houston, Washington, New York, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Geneva and Melbourne.

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways has orders for 80 Airbus A350s, 60 Boeing 787s and 32 Boeing 777s, with deliveries of the latter having started in November 2007. The airline is one of the customers of the twin-deck Airbus A380 'super jumbos' with five on order and scheduled for delivery from 2012, by which time the New Doha International Airport would have opened. For more information, go to www.qatarairways.com.

By 2013, the carrier plans to serve over 120 destinations worldwide with a fleet of more than 120 aircraft averaging less than four years old.