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Qatar Airways has used the ITB Berlin travel fair to announce a series of new airports to which the airline is hoping to launch service. Bearing in mind Qatar Airways’ history with route announcements, we can never be really sure how many of these airports will actually get service from Doha so it’s wise to remain sceptical…but one airport is a shoo-in.
Qatar Airways has said that it will commence service to London’s Gatwick Airport this year and, for once, we can be sure that this isn’t just PR fluff because the flights are already loaded into the airline’s reservations system.
From 22 May 2018 Qatar Airways will serve London Gatwick on the following schedule:
QR329 DOH 02:10 – 07:10 LGW (Mon, Tue & Thu)
QR329 DOH 02:25 – 07:25 LGW (Wed, Fri & Sat)
QR329 DOH 02:05 – 07:05 LGW (Sun)
QR327 DOH 08:05 – 13:05 LGW (Sun)
QR327 DOH 08:30 – 13:30 LGW (Tue, Wed & Thu)
QR327 DOH 08:55 – 13:55 LGW (Sat)
QR327 DOH 09:00 – 14:00 LGW (Fri)
QR327 DOH 09:15 – 14:15 LGW (Mon)
QR330 LGW 08:50 – 17:30 DOH (Mon,Sat & Sun)
QR330 LGW 09:00 – 17:40 DOH (Tue & Thu)
QR330 LGW 09:10 – 17:50 DOH (Wed & Fri)
QR328 LGW 15:20 – 23:59 DOH (Wed)
QR328 LGW 15:25 – 00:05+1 day DOH (Mon, Fri & Sat)
QR328 LGW 15:30 – 00:10+1 day DOH (Thu)
QR328 LGW 15:40 – 00:20+1 day DOH (Sun)
QR328 LGW 16:00 – 00:40+1 day DOH (Mon)
Between 15 June and 29 September Qatar Airways has scheduled an additional two weekly weekend flights:
QR331 DOH 15:00 – 20:00LGW (Sat)
QR331 DOH 15:40 – 20:40LGW (Fri)
QR332 LGW 21:30 – 06:10+1 day DOH (Sat)
QR332 LGW 22:10 – 06:50+1 day DOH (Fri)
Qatar Airways will operate the Gatwick flights using its 787 Dreamliners which offer the following cabin layouts:
- 22 Business Class seats
- 232 Economy Class seats
The Qatar Airways Dreamliners may not offer the airline’s acclaimed Qsuite in the Business Class cabin but the seat on offer (as well as the service) is very good indeed:
Qatar Airways 787 Business Class
Qatar Airways 787 Business Class
Qatar Airways 787 Business Class
In Economy Class the news isn’t so good with passengers only getting a little over 17″ of seat width (that’s very tight) and just 31″ of seat pitch (legroom).
To put that into context, the service and the cabin amenities may be pretty good but the seats offer no more space than the newly refurbished British Airways 777 aircraft I wrote about earlier this week.
Economy Class passengers will have access to a proper power supply and onboard wi-fi (two things you won’t find on the refurbished BA abominations 777s) but that really doesn’t go a long way to masking the cramped conditions passengers will face.
What Other Routes Did Qatar Airways Mention?
The airline spewed out a whole raft of destinations at the ITB fair and these included the following:
- 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;
- Málaga, Spain
There are two problems here.
Firstly, there are destinations on this list that have been announced before – like Cardiff, Bodrum, Thessaloniki, Lisbon and Malaga – so this really isn’t news.
Secondly, Qatar Airways is great at reeling off destinations it plans to serve but isn’t quite so good at ever actually serving those destinations – we’re still waiting on flights to Vegas and San Francisco for example.
This makes it hard to take this list seriously….at least not until we start seeing some of these destinations loaded into the airline’s reservation systems.
Bottom Line
UK-based flyers can rest assured that they will actually be getting Qatar Airways service to/from Gatwick as those flights can be booked right now (as can flights to Thessaloniki, Bodrum, Malaga and Antalya). Flyers based in the other destinations mentioned will just have to wait and see if the airline follows through with its stated plans.
You can book Qatar Airways flights to and from Gatwick via this link
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