Qatar Airways has confirmed a long-expected expansion of its network in the UK with the addition of Birmingham to its route map. The hub carrier will introduce a daily offering between its Hamad International Airport hub in Doha and Birmingham International Airport from March 30, 2016, adding to its existing flights to London Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Interestingly, the hub carrier will not just enter the Midlands’ market with a daily operation but with a second rotation already in the schedule, albeit initially only offering two flights every Saturday. The eight times weekly link will be flown using a 254-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and will increase the Gulf carrier’s offering between Doha and the UK to 71 flights per week, further strengthening connections to Africa, Asia and beyond.

“This additional route strengthens Qatar Airways’ commitment to the regions across the UK and will create new commercial and leisure links between the city of Birmingham and the 152 destinations served by the airline,” said His Excellency Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways Group.

A special split schedule will be offered by Qatar Airways to maximise onward connection opportunities to its wider network. This will see flights departing Doha at 01:25 four days a week and 07:30 four days each week. The return flights are scheduled to operate from Birmingham at 09:15 and 15:00, arriving back in Doha at 18:05 and 23:50, respectively.

“This is fantastic news for both Birmingham Airport and the region, and is our tenth new airline to announce or launch this year,” said Paul Kehoe, Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Airport. “Not only will our passengers have the choice of flying with the award winning carrier to Doha’s state-of-the-art hub Hamad International Airport, they will have a choice of 152 destinations served by the airline, including South East Asia, China and Australasia.”

We revealed earlier this year that Birmingham Airport’s air service development team were not content on the amazing achievement of adding a third rotation by Emirates Airline to Dubai to its network and were working to secure additional global connectivity via the Gulf hubs by attending the inaugural Routes Middle East & Africa forum in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.

“We are actively looking to further enhance our connectivity into the Middle East, as well as Africa. We are holding talks with airlines in both regions and are very close to finalising discussions with at least one operator,” William Pearson, Aviation Director, Birmingham Airport told Routesonline on the sidelines of the forum. “

“Emirates’ decision to add a third daily service to Dubai and beyond from Birmingham Airport clearly shows the strong demand that exists in the city and the region for passengers who want connectivity to Dubai, Asia and Australia,” he added.

Analysis of passenger demand on the Dubai – Birmingham route shows that an around 500,000 passengers flew on the link between the cities during 2014, suggesting average loads in excess of 87 per cent on the Emirates service. An estimated 30.4 per cent of these passengers were utilising it for point-to-point travel, with the remaining connecting to or from other points across the globe.

The data shows that alongside the local traffic, the top ten most popular points for travellers utilising the route were between Birmingham and Islamabad, Bangkok, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Perth, Delhi, Dhaka, Cochin, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and the arrival of Qatar Airways will offer further connection opportunities into Africa, Asia and Australasia.

Birmingham is home to the largest concentration of businesses outside of London, boasting 34,285 companies including over 700 international firms and Qatar Airways is expected to enjoy a strong mix of business and leisure demand in and out of the city. The 787-8 serving the route will be configured in a two-class arrangement providing seating for of 22 Business Class and 232 Economy Class passengers, introducing an additional 4,000 two-way long-haul seats into the Birmingham market.

Data from OAG shows Qatar Airways boosted its capacity into the UK by 129.3 per cent between 2005 and 2014, an average annual rise of 14.4 per cent. Network and frequency growth in 2015 based on published schedules show it will grow capacity a further 34.2 per cent in 2015 – it’s largest year-on-year growth - to offer more than one million seats in each direction.