Qatar confirms Sydney, Canberra flights.

Qatar Airways has confirmed it will start double-daily Sydney services from February 13 with a  “tag”  flight connecting Australian capital Canberra. The airline will use a 358-seat Boeing 777-300 aircraft to fly Doha-Sydney-Canberra and then Canberra-Sydney-Doha. The big jet will be flying the short Sydney-Canberra hop alongside ATR and Q 400 turboprops but it will not be able to fly domestic passengers between the two Australian cities. It will be competing for passengers with Singapore Airline’s direct flight between Singapore and Canberra. Singapore recently retimed that flight to improve connections with other flights in its network and make the service more efficient. Qatar had used up its rights under the current bilateral air services agreement to service Australia’s major gateway airports of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. However, it is allowed an additional seven frequencies a week to one of the major airports provided it operates the “via or beyond to a point in Australia other than Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth’’. “The services intended to be operated by Qatar Airways to Canberra via Sydney are accommodated under this entitlement,’’ a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Darren Chester said. Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker described Canberra as an important addition to the global route map that further boosted ties between the countries. “We are confident our highly-acclaimed product will appeal greatly to government, business and leisure travellers alike and we look forward to welcoming our passengers on board very soon,”  he said in a statement.