Qatar Airways has started serving the southern Chinese industrial port city of Guangzhou effective March 31. Qatar Airways area manager Ahmed M. Al-Idrissi said Guangzhou would complement the airline's daily services to Hong Kong, offering business and leisure travelers an exciting opportunity to visit two key Chinese cities in such close proximity to each other. The Doha-based Qatar Airways becomes the first airline from the Gulf to serve Guangzhou. It operates four flights-a-week non-stop using an Airbus A330 aircraft in a two-class configuration of up to 24 seats in Business Class and a maximum 248 in Economy. The addition of Guangzhou strengthens Qatar Airways' China network which currently includes daily flights to Hong Kong, four weekly services to Beijing, and five services a week to Shanghai. Guangzhou takes the airline's capacity into China up to 20 flights a week. From May 1, Qatar Airways adds a fifth weekly service to Guangzhou. Passengers flying Qatar Airways from Jeddah will have excellent connections to Guangzhou via the airline's operational hub of Doha, capital of the State of Qatar. The new services will provide a strong sporting link as Doha hosted the biggest ever Asian Games in 2006, while Guangzhou is set to host the next sporting extravaganza in 2010. Beginning May 1, Idrissi moreover said Qatar Airways would increase capacity further into Guangzhou with a fifth weekly scheduled flight. “With China hosting the Olympic Games later this year when Beijing takes center stage for this two-week sporting extravaganza, Qatar Airways is proud to be part of China's success story. Furthermore, both Guangzhou and Doha have a strong sporting link as we hosted the Asian Games in Qatar just over 12 months ago, and it will be the turn of Guangzhou in 2010 to take charge of this fantastic sporting event,” he added. The airline operates a modern fleet of 60 Airbus and Boeing aircraft to 81 destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Far East and North America. The airline is one of an elite group of carriers with a Five Star ranking for service and excellence awarded by Skytrax, the independent aviation industry research company. Skytrax also named Qatar Airways' cabin crew as Best in the Middle East for the fifth year running in 2007 following a survey of more than 12 million passengers. During the current 2007/08 financial year, Qatar Airways expects to carry more than 10 million passengers worldwide. __
