Qatar Airways chief executive Officer Akbar Al Baker, pictured centre, at Yangon International Airport following the airline’s resumption of flights to Myanmar. He is flanked by His Excellency, Mr. Jabor Ali Al-Dosseri, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiairy of the State of Qatar to Thailand and responsible for Myanmar (left); and His Excellency, U Myint Swe, Chief Minister, Yangon Region Government.

Qatar Airways today marked the resumption of flights to Yangon after a four-year absence with the launch of scheduled services to Myanmar’s largest city.

Yangon becomes Qatar Airways’ 10th gateway in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) following on from successful operations to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Hanoi, Singapore, Manila and Phuket – and the carrier’s 119th destination worldwide.

Qatar Airways suspended flights to Yangon in January 2008, and is now restoring services, providing greater economic and travel opportunities for the people of Myanmar.

Al Baker said Qatar Airways’ re-entry into Yangon marked one of the Gulf carrier’s most important route launches of the year.

“Yangon becomes our ninth new destination so far this year to join Qatar Airways’ family of routes and the first Asian launch in 2012,” he said.

“Today marks a very special occasion as we celebrate our arrival into a city and country that show enormous potential and growth, both as a competitive tourism destination and centre for business in the ASEAN region.

Added Al Baker: “At Qatar Airways, we remain committed to opening up access to destinations that are largely underserved by international airlines and that have great market potential.

“Yangon is an example of this and 2012 will continue to be one of our biggest years of expansion addressing the underserved markets that our strategy has focused on.

“As we continue to grow and receive more aircraft, we will look at other opportunities to expand our network and further strengthen our brand presence around the world.

“This includes the ASEAN region, especially at a time when the region is preparing to implement its open skies policy in 2015, which will open up air access even more to this dynamic part of the world,” je concluded.

Qatar Airways is operating thrice-weekly non-stop scheduled flights into Yangon from its Doha hub, flying an Airbus 319 aircraft in a two-class configuration offering eight seats in Business and 102 in Economy.

The former capital of Yangon and current gateway to Myanmar has by far the largest airport in the country, handling around 2.5 million passengers annually, two-thirds being international visitors – a figure set to rise sharply as airlines start flights from other markets.

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 15 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 111 aircraft to 119 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

The Asia Pacific and South Asia represent around 30 per cent of Qatar Airways’ global coverage, flying to diverse cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Osaka, Tokyo, Perth, Beijing, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Colombo.

Since the beginning of 2012, Qatar Airways has launched flights to Baku (Azerbaijan); Tbilisi (Georgia); Kigali (Rwanda); Zagreb (Croatia), Erbil (Iraq), Baghdad (Iraq), Perth (Australia) and Kilimanjaro (Tanzania).

Over the next few months, Qatar Airways will launch services to a diverse portfolio of new routes, including Maputo, Mozambique; Belgrade, Serbia; Warsaw, Poland; Gassim, Saudi Arabia; Najaf, Iraq; and Chicago, USA.