DOHA – Qatar Airways continues to fly where others have suspended flights – adding 10,000 extra seats to its network and providing charter services to Europe and the United States from Asia.
It is also upgrading services to Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Perth with the addition of the Airbus A380 on those routes.
Qatar says the extra capacity is to ensure that as many people as possible can return to their home countries and avoid being stranded overseas.
Figures for the last seven days show Qatar load factors of more than 80% for flights to the UK, France and Germany, with a fall to 36% for outbound services from those countries, illustrating the demand for homeward travel.
Qatar is also amending its refund policy to incentivise travellers. Passengers who opt to receive a travel voucher, in lieu of a refund, will receive a 10% bonus on top of their fare cost.
Qatar Airways has flown more than 100,000 passengers home in the last seven days while 72% of passengers carried on March 24 were nationals flying to their country of origin.
The airline has operated one-off services from destinations such as Phnom Penh, Denpasar, Manila and Kuala Lumpur to Europe.
Qatar Airways is currently operating flights to 75 destinations, though the airline says this number may reduce as nations introduce tighter restrictions.
A full list of the routes can be seen at https://www.qatarairways.com/en/travel-alerts/COVID-19-update.html