Dubai: Qatar Airways will start flying to Ras Al Khaimah from Tuesday after delaying last year’s planned launch “due to operational reasons,” according to an airline executive.
The Doha-based airline said in May 2015 that it would start daily flights from Doha to Ras Al Khaimah on October 1 the same year. However, it later pushed back the launch date to February 6, 2016, with services trimmed to four times a week.
“Due to operational reasons we rescheduled our flights, that’s about it,” Rohan Seneviratne, Qatar Airways’ Country Manager for the UAE, told Gulf News on Sunday ahead of a press conference with Britain’s tourist board.
Seneviratne did not elaborate, however, said that flights will “initially” start with the four weekly services with scope to add more.
“The numbers look very positive at the moment,” he said of the forward bookings.
European travellers
The announcement last May that Qatar Airways would start flying to Ras Al Khaimah was seen as a coup for the emirate whose flag carrier RAK Airways shut down on January 1, 2014.
The emirate has also seen Air Arabia start scheduled flights from its Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. The Qatar Airways service, however, is likely to generate more choice for European visitors.
Ras Al Khaimah has already seen some success with European travellers flying on chartered services, particularly from Germany and Russia. Seneviratne said he expects “Europeans, Russians, Austrians [and] Germans” to be travelling on Qatar Airways flights to the emirate.
Ras Al Khaimah, like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, sees aviation and tourism playing a vital role in the development of its economy.
