Qatar Airways celebrates exciting year and looks to the future

Qatar Airways launched a safety video featuring Barcelona stars Mr. Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, had this to say about the year: “As 2015 comes to an end, Qatar Airways is able to reflect on a number of successes throughout the year, while also celebrating  the launch of our new global brand campaign and latest on-board safety video. This has been a momentous way to end what has been a truly historic year for the national carrier of Qatar which has seen, amongst other things, several top award wins, the forging of new partnerships, strong engagement on social media, the launch of a brand new aircraft type and the start of several new routes on both its passenger and cargo networks.”

Qatar Airways’ recently launched global brand campaign, Going Places Together, outlines the airline’s ambitions for the coming year – “to strengthen its global reach by bringing people and places together,” while a unique on-board safety video, featuring famous Barcelona players Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez among others, received much attention online and in the industry. “The phenomenal response to our new global brand campaign and safety video has been overwhelming and has strengthened the strong bond that Qatar Airways has with its passengers,” said Salam Al Shawa, Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Marketing & Corporate Communications.

First airline to fly the A350 to the US The start of the year saw Qatar Airways become the launch customer of the A350 - Airbus’ newest aircraft. In conjunction with this, Qatar Airways became the first airline in the world to operate every family of Airbus’ modern airliner family, comprising of the A320, A330, A340, A350 and A380.

Inauguration ceremony of Qatar Airways' first Airbus A350 XWB Qatar Airways added 29 new aircraft to its fleet throughout 2015, increasing its total aircraft count by 20 per cent. The average age of Qatar Airways’ fleet is now four years, one of the youngest in the industry. Qatar Airways also launched eight new destinations in 2015 – Abha, Amsterdam, Durban, Nagpur, Faisalabad, Multan, Sialkot and Zanzibar, and increased service to more than 30 destinations. New routes planned for next year include Adelaide, Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Los Angeles, Sydney and Ras Al Khaimah.

Qatar Airways' impressive haul at the Skytrax Awards Qatar Airways was also recognised with a number of awards during the last 12 months, most notably Skytrax’s Airline of the Year, for the third time in five years. Additionally, the airline collected Best Business Class Airline Seat and Best Airline in the Middle East.

Celebrating 10,000,000 fans on Facebook The airline also became the first in the world to pass 10 million fans on Facebook. “Qatar Airways was steadfast in its pursuit for growth and excellence this year and this was delivered against challenging situations – a testament to the unrelenting dedication of our staff, our loyal passengers and our corporate business strategy,” Mr. Al Baker concluded.