Qatar Airways is significantly expanding its codeshare agreement with SriLankan Airlines as part of continued growth that will also see it add new destinations and boost frequencies in 2020.
The first phase of the extended codeshare agreement with SriLankan begins December 23 and will ultimately add 33 Qatar Airways’ destinations in Europe, America and Africa.
Under phase one, Srilankan passengers will be able to book to eight additional Qatar Airways European destinations.
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These are Athens, Greece; Belgrade, Serbia; Brussels, Belgium; Dublin, Ireland; Helsinki, Finland; Munich, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic and Thessaloniki, Greece.
Qatar passengers will be able to book on SriLankan flights to Gan Island in Addu Atoll in addition to existing codeshare destinations Colombo in Sri Lanka and Male in the Maldives.
The two airlines have had a codeshare agreement since 2016 and Qatar group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said both airlines had witnessed significant benefits.
“The expansion of codeshare cooperation between Qatar Airways and SriLankan Airlines is a natural next step in the strengthening of our close partnership,” he said.
Qatar began flying to Colombo in 2014 and today serves it four times daily as one of its more popular routes.
In a separate announcement, Qatar revealed it would add seasonal flights to Santorini, Greece, and Dubrovnik, Croatia, in the 2020 northern summer season and increase frequencies to 20 destinations.
Dubrovnik will be the airline’s second Croatian destination after Zagreb and will start on April 20.
Santorini is Qatar’s fourth destination in Greece after Athens, Mykonos and Thessaloniki and the service will start May 20.
Both destinations will be serviced by an Airbus A320 with 12 seats in business class and 132 in economy class.
They join Osaka, Japan, as new destinations in 2020. Qatar will fly five times weekly to the Japanese city from June 23, 2020.
It also recently marked its ninth new destination for 2019 with a service to Gaborone in Botswana.
The Doha-based airline will add 66 weekly frequencies to 20 destinations in its network “due to strong market demand and the recent deliveries of more fuel-efficient aircraft”.
The increases are:
Europe
- Adana, Turkey will increase from three to five weekly flights
- Antalya, Turkey will increase from three to five weekly flights
- Athens, Greece will increase from three to four daily flights
- Belgrade, Serbia will increase from seven to 10 weekly flights
- Bodrum, Turkey will increase from three to five weekly flights
- Edinburgh, Scotland will increase from 10 to 14 weekly flights
- Oslo, Norway will increase from 10 to 14 weekly flights
- Venice, Italy will increase from seven to 11 weekly flights
- Warsaw, Poland will increase from 14 to 18 weekly flights
- Zurich, Switzerland will increase from 14 to 18 weekly flights
Africa
- Maputo, Mozambique will increase from three to five weekly flights
- Windhoek, Namibia will increase from five to seven weekly flights
- Three of the seven weekly flights to Kigali, Rwanda to be delinked from Entebbe, Uganda and operate direct non-stop flights to each destination
- Daily service to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania will be delinked with non-stop direct daily flights to each destination
Asia
- Colombo, Sri Lanka will increase from four to five daily flights
- Dhaka, Bangladesh will increase from three to four daily flights
- Penang and Langkawi, Malaysia combined service will increase from five to seven weekly flights
