Qatar Air launch non-stop Doha-Chiang Mai flights
Chiang Mai on Wednesday established its longest international air link with the arrival of Qatar Airways’ maiden non-stop flight from Doha.
Qatar is the latest international carrier to serve the northern Thai city, one day after no-frills Vietjet Air started regular flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai became the fourth Thai city served by the flag carrier of Qatar, which has made bolder moves than other major Gulf carriers to strengthen its Thai footprint.
Qatar on Wednesday confirmed the earlier-announced plan to embark on a fifth non-stop route, Doha-U-tapao, starting on Jan 28, 2018. That service will offer four flights a week on the Boeing 787 Dream liner, with 22 seats in business class and 232 seats in economy.
Chiang Mai, as one of the hosts of slew of new international routes commenced by Qatar this year, is served four times per week from Doha with an Airbus A330-200 wide-body jet with 24 seats in business class and 236 seats in economy.
In his arrival statement, Qatar chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the Doha-Chiang Mai service launch reflects increasing demand from the airline’s customers for more high-quality leisure destinations.
The arrival of Qatar to Chiang Mai was hailed by Thai authorities as giving a major boost to the province’s tourism, especially by creating direct tourist flows from the airline’s Doha hub linked by more than 150 global destinations formed in Qatar’s network.
Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said Qatar’s Chiang Mai launch will support TAT’s drive to draw traffic from the country’s key tourism markets in Europe, the US, throughout the Middle East into Chiang Mai via Doha.
“This new route is proof that working with the right airlines on strategic campaigns to promote our country is crucial to attracting tourists to Thailand,” Mr Yuthasak said. “We believe that together with Qatar Airways we can access more tourists looking to experience Chiang Mai’s unique and authentic culture, as well as increase prosperity for the region.
“Next year we look forward to deepening our ties with Qatar Airways when the airline adds a fifth Thai gateway to its route network with the start of flights from Doha to U-tapao, near Pattaya.” Source: Bangkok Post
