Qatar Airways Launches Shiraz Flights

Posted 09/06/2011

Qatar Airways has this week inaugurated flights between Doha and Shahid Dastghaib International Airport in Shiraz, its third destination in Iran.  The twice weekly link was launched on June 5 and is operated with an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business and 132 in Economy.

The airline first launched flights to Iran in 2004 when it commenced flights to Tehran, followed a year later by flights to Mashad.  It now serves Iran’s capital Tehran twice-daily with a further five-flights-a-week to the northern city of Mashad and carried an estimated 68,000 O&D passengers between Iran and its Doha International Airport base in the past year. 

According to Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways, the potential for the route “is huge” due to a significant lack of current capacity.  “Iranian expatriates number between four and five million people, with many living in Europe and North America.  We have good connections from these continents to Shiraz through our Doha hub, so facilitating travel for this expatriate community is now made much easier,” he said.

Shiraz is home to over 1.5 million people and is one of the largest cities in Iran.  As the capital city of the Fars Province, Shiraz is the economic centre of southern Iran.  It is known as the city of poets, literature and flowers, with industries focused on cement production, sugar, fertilisers, textiles, wood products, metalwork, rugs and pile carpet weaving. It is also notable that more than 50 per cent of Iran’s electronics investment is based in and around Shiraz.

“We will also look to add frequency and capacity to improve connectivity even further,” added Akbar Al Baker.

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