Qatar Airways upgrades frequencies to Yangon due to success

Just 24 days after launching its new route Doha-Yangon, Qatar Airways already upgraded its service to a daily flight due to strong demand.

BANGKOK- “Qatar Airways started flying to Yangon out of Doha less than a month ago. The airline has been taken by surprise by demand. We did not expect to see such a tremendous demand by tourists. Flights are so full that we already decided to upgrade our schedule. From three weekly frequencies, we already serve Yangon on a daily basis since October 28, the official date for IATA winter schedules”, explains Joe Rajadurai, Country Manager, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Yangon was a challenge to open due to the lack of technology available in Myanmar. “We need softwares to manage our operation. But we finally solved most problems and I must say that Myanmar authorities have been very cooperative,” he adds. “We enjoy very strong demand to Burma from Europe, especially outbound markets in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Spain. We have the flexibility to put additional capacities as we can upgrade our aircraft to an Airbus A330. However, we are limited by the lack of hotel accommodations in Yangon and around the country. There is little logic to put more flight capacities if infrastructure on the ground does not follow”, estimated Joe Rajadurai.

Qatar Airways is also extremely satisfied by traffic evolution in Thailand. “We now have three daily flights to Bangkok with some of our afternoon and evening frequencies going either to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. This will however change from February with the launching of our new flight to Phnom Penh”, adds Qatar Airways GM.

The new Doha-Phnom Penh course will rotate via Ho Chi Minh City from February. “We will then stop flying Doha-Bangkok-Saigon. It means that we then will increase capacities by 30% to Bangkok as we put daily another 100 seats on the market. We will however continue to serve Hanoi via Bangkok as there is a lot of demand also between both cities,” he says.

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Luc Citrinot

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Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.