Qatar to resume flights to Phuket

Qatar Airways is to resume direct flights to Phuket from December. The Doha-based airline will be flying twice-weekly to the Thai sunshine island starting December 4.

Thailand recently welcomed its first international tourists since it closed its borders in March. The visitors were travelling on a special long stay visa that the country launched in a bid to entice the tourists back. All travellers to the country must quarantine for 14-days on arrival.

Qatar is also planning to resume three weekly flights to the Seychelles from December 15 and will be increasing its flight schedule with New York to 14 weekly flights from November 15.

Further schedule additions include Miami from November 14, Chicago from November 15, Warsaw from December 16 and Kiev from December 18.

“We are delighted to continue rebuilding our network, resuming routes and adding new destinations,” said Akbar Al Baker, Qatar’s group chief executive. “With more than 700 weekly flights currently to just over 100 destinations, and plans to increase our network to more than 125 destinations by the end of the winter season, our passengers will enjoy more options to travel when they want to cross the globe.”

The airline says it has been in a position to lead a “sustainable recovery of global travel” due to its investment in twin-engine, fuel-efficient aircraft, including the largest fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft. Due to the impact of the pandemic, it has grounded its fleet of Airbus A380s admitting it is not “environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market”.

Qatar has also launched a new programme to enable passengers to offset the carbon emissions associated with their journey when they book.