Qatar Airways continues its U.S. expansion with plans to operate more than 100 weekly flights between 12 cities across the United States and its hub in Doha. By comparison, regional rival Emirates will also serve around 12 U.S. cities by the end of July but will only operate around 70 flights per week.
Four U.S. gateways – Chicago, Los Angeles, New York JFK and Washington D.C. – will increase to double daily flights from July, while Dallas Fort Worth will increase to 12 flights per week.
Boston, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle will increase to daily flights and Houston will continue as a daily service. Philadelphia will initially increase to five times per week before going to daily flights from July 21. Atlanta will continue to be served with five flights per week.
The expansion reflects the rediscovered freedom of vaccinated Americans to start travelling internationally again. Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker says his airline is also expanding service to popular leisure destinations like Cape Town, the Maldives, Phuket, Seychelles and Zanzibar as travel restrictions are rolled back.
Qatar Airways aggressively expanded into the U.S. last November long before the recovery even started and was so keen to woo American passengers that it was the only international airline to serve special Thanksgiving meals in the same month.
The airline has also managed to strengthen strategic ties with Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and JetBlue which Qatar Airways claims allows it to connect to more cities and airports in the United State than any other airline.
