Qatar Airways confirms Dublin-Doha flights

Qatar Airways has confirmed plans to begin flying from Dublin to Doha but has yet to say when the service will begin.

The Gulf airline's chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, had recently said that it hoped to begin flying the route in May, depending on aircraft availability.

Dublin features on a list of eight new destinations to which Qatar says it will begin flying in 2017-18.

However, Qatar said that it does not have a confirmed date for the launch of the service from the Irish capital.

Gold Circle members brassed off by Aer Lingus changes

---

CityJet cuts losses to €10m as revenues fall by 8.5%

---

Alitalia may cut 2,000 jobs and 20 routes to slow airline’s decline

---

More than 800 flights grounded as Lufthansa dispute intensifies

---

In a statement, Mr Al Baker said that the airline “looked forward” to flying to those cities in 2017-18.

They include Canberra in Australia, Kualanamu in Indonesia and two destinations in Saudi Arabia.

Plans

Dublin Airport managing director Vincent Harrison said that he was delighted that Qatar had confirmed its plans.

“This new service will offer passengers an additional option into the Middle East and also open up a wide range of convenient connections via Doha,” he said.

“It will also help grow inbound tourism to Ireland as Qatar Airways will be able to sell Dublin and Ireland through its extensive route network.”

Last month, Mr Al Baker told Irish website Travel Extra that Qatar wanted to use one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners for the route, but it needed one of the Airbus A350s that his company had on order for this to happen.

Once Canberra is launched, the airline will be flying five Australian routes. Irish travellers often use its Gulf rivals, Emirates and Etihad, to reach destinations in that country.

Also, Qatar will shortly begin flying to Krabi in southern Thailand and could soon begin serving Auckland in New Zealand.