Qatar Airways and Iberia are pleased to announce the expansion of their codeshare partnership, offering Iberia customers increased connectivity to destinations across the Middle East and Asia, as well as providing enhanced accessibility for Qatar Airways passengers to key destinations across Latin America, including Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Panama.
Further strengthening the airline’s codeshare partnership and enhancing both carriers’ oneworld relationship, the new codeshare destinations can already be booked. The Qatar Airways’ code (QR) will be applied to routes operated by Iberia from Madrid to Panama City, Panama; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Bogotá Medellín (MDE), Colombia; Montevideo, Uruguay; and Santo Domingo; Dominican Republic. Qatar Airways currently offers double daily flights from Doha direct to Madrid. From July, this will increase to 17 times weekly.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Expanding the codeshare partnership with Iberia was a natural progression based on our customers’ mutual desire for additional destinations across both networks, as well as our membership in the oneworld alliance. Latin America is a key area of growth for us, and we are delighted to be able to provide access to these new, fast-growing cities for our valued passengers from Qatar, the wider Middle East, South Asia and beyond with seamless connectivity.”
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Iberia, Mr. Luis Gallego, said: “We are very happy to announce this expanded codeshare agreement with our oneworld partner, Qatar Airways. With these additional routes, we will be able to provide our customers with greater access to the Middle East and Asia, offering even more choice to both business and leisure travellers.”
The enhanced partnership will also benefit members of both airlines’ frequent flyer programmes – Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Iberia Plus – as well as provide passengers with increased accessibility to Qatar Airways’ award-winning hub, Hamad International Airport (HIA), and Iberia’s hub at Madrid Airport Terminal 4.
The national carrier of the State of Qatar is one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, with a modern fleet of more than 200 aircraft flying to business and leisure destinations across six continents. The airline is set to launch a host of new destinations in 2018-19, including London Gatwick and Cardiff, United Kingdom; Lisbon, Portugal; Tallinn, Estonia; Valletta, Malta; Cebu and Davao, Philippines; Langkawi, Malaysia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Bodrum, Antalya and Hatay, Turkey; Mykonos and Thessaloniki, Greece and Málaga, Spain.
The award-winning airline has received a number of accolades recently, including ‘Airline of the Year’ by the prestigious 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards, held at the Paris Air Show. This was the fourth time that Qatar Airways has been given this global recognition as the world’s best airline. In addition to being voted ‘World’s Best Airline’ by travellers from around the world, Qatar’s national carrier also won a raft of other major awards at the ceremony, including ‘Best Airline in the Middle East,’ ‘World’s Best Business Class’ and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge’.
Iberia is the leading carrier on routes between Europe and Latin America. Together with its subsidiary Iberia Express and its franchise partner Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum, it operates 600 daily flights to 131 destinations in 48 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Middle East and Asia with a fleet of some 135 aircraft. In 2016 and 2017, Iberia was world’s most punctual carrier according to FlightGlobal Incorporating FlightStats, while it was awarded its 4th Skytrax star in 2017.
