Following an extended joint business agreement between British Airways and Qatar Airways, customers will now be able to choose flights from a far wider range of destinations.
Additional flights from London Heathrow via Doha to cities in Asia, Australasia and Africa will be placed on sale via British Airways’ website from March.
Flights to/from the following 14 cities will be added to the joint business agreement between British Airways and Qatar Airways: Adelaide, Auckland, Canberra, Goa, Hanoi, Jakarta, Manila, Maputo, Melbourne, Pattaya, Penang, Perth, Phuket and Sohar.
As part of the extended joint business agreement, from July 1, British Airways will also deploy its newest long-haul aircraft, a Boeing 787-9, on its Heathrow to Doha services.
The extended joint business helps to strengthen the oneworld alliance and enable it to compete more effectively on a wide range of routes to and from the Middle East.
The two airlines already codeshare on more than 48 routes around the world and are looking at other possibilities to extend the arrangements further.
Alex Cruz, British Airways chairman and CEO, said: “We are very pleased to be extending and deepening our joint business relationship with Qatar Airways which will bring extra benefits and additional routes to customers using both airlines around the world.
“We hope that customers in the UK can now make even easier connections on flights to exciting cities such as Manila, Hanoi, Melbourne and Auckland. Our Executive Club members will also be able to earn and redeem Avios on these new services, giving them even greater benefits.”
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “The UK is one of our most important markets and one where we have significantly increased our capacity over recent years. It is great news that we can extend our relationship with British Airways and offer customers extra benefits by increasing the number of code sharing opportunities on our network. We look forward to further developing our joint business in the near future.”