Qatar Airways Flies Stranded Passengers Home

Qatar Airways is keeping the skies open and assisting many stranded passengers to get home.

The airline has stepped up its commitment to travelers adding extra seats to its network and offering charters from Europe and the U.S.

“Our state-of-the-art aircraft with their advanced air filter systems, combined with strict bio-security screening of our staff means that we can continue operating a significant number of flights to reunite stranded passengers with their loved ones,” the airline noted in a statement.

As of March 24, 2020, the airline has added 10,000 extra seats added to its network, offered charter services to Europe and the U.S. from Asia, added extra flights to Paris, Perth and Dublin from Doha and upgraded to Paris, Perth and Dublin from Doha.

“Figures for the last seven days show load factors of over 80 percent for flights to the UK, France and Germany, with a fall to 36 percent for outbound services from those countries, illustrating the demand for homeward travel,” the Qatar Airways statement said.

Over the last seven days, the airline has flown more than 100,000 passengers home while 72 percent of passengers carried on 24 March were nationals flying to their country of origin.

Qatar is committed to working with embassies around the world to return passengers to their countries of origin and has operated one-off services from Phnom Penh, Denpasar, Manila and Kuala Lumpur to Europe. These services have taken more than 5,000 passengers home over the course of the last week and that number is expected to triple over the next week.

The airline is currently operating flights to 75 destinations but that number could change as countries restrict travel.

For those looking for flights, they can find a list of operational routes COVID-19-%20update.html” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>here.