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Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said the priority
now was to accommodate the hundreds of flights that will be
landing in the country for the tournament.
Qatar, which expects about 500 shuttle flights a day as well as
hundreds more charter flights and private jets, will host the
Nov. 20-Dec. 18 tournament with about 1.2 million visitors.
A total of 32 nations are taking part with matches spread across
eight stadiums, located within 40 kilometres of central Doha.
"Actually no, we don't have any new destinations," Chief
Executive Akbar Al Baker told a news conference when asked
whether the airline was now growing due to the World Cup.
"Quite the contrary. We have reduced and withdrawn from 18
destinations in order to make space at Hamad international
airport to bring fans.
"Our priority is not Qatar Airways' network but giving access to
all countries participating and bringing in large numbers of
passengers."
He said German airline Lufthansa was considering restarting
operations along with Air France and KLM.
Qatar Airways COO Badr Mohammad Al Meer said hundreds of flights
were scheduled to land daily for the tournament.
A large number of fans will also be flying in just for the
matches, opting to stay in neighbouring Dubai.
"For shuttle flights there will be 500 a day, for charter
flights the list has not yet been finalised," he said.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and
Ed Osmond)
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