Qatar Airways have just announced that the airline will be launching services to Canberra in 2017. This is the 5th Australian route the airline will operate.

Qatar already services Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. The airline is performing quite well on all routes especially on the Sydney flight which got upgraded to their flagship A380 recently. Competition is very apparent between the ME3 and this could be the next step for QR to tease Etihad and Emirates.

At a conference today CEO Akbar Al Baker said the following statement:

“With today’s network announcement, we will be able to connect more people to more places than any other Gulf airline, and we will ensure our passengers will delight in the journey. At Qatar Airways, we are going places together with our passengers, and we look forward to welcoming these new destinations in 2017-18.”

I’m also more interested in what the airline will use as their equipment. I’m thinking they may use their 777 which feature an older product but who knows, Middle Eastern airlines never fail to surprise.

If this flight is approved this is fantastic news for Canberra airport which recently had it’s first International service operated by Singapore Airlines.

Bottom Line

I’m very interested to see what Qatar does with the route.