Qatar Airways is planning to launch a new flight service to Odesa in Ukraine, its second destination in the European nation, media reports said. The carrier is expected to begin operations from December 9, 2021, and will fly its Airbus A320 aircraft to Odesa thrice a week.
Qatar Airways Group chief executive Mr. Akbar Al Baker told the media, “We have been operating to Ukraine since August 2017 and our launch to Odesa marks a milestone in our history with the country. Odesa is rightly known as the pearl of the Black Sea and we look forward to bringing visitors from around the world to explore its rich cultural history as well as further afield along the coast and inland in the Southwest of Ukraine.”
Last month, Qatar Airways reported that it suffered losses of around $4 billion in revenues over the last fiscal year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The losses were attributed to the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body aircraft due to the travel restrictions and lockdown measures introduced to curb the spread of the virus.
The state-owned carrier also resumed its services to Sharjah in July. It was reported in June that the carrier will fly its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft to Sharjah on a daily basis starting from July 1st. Qatar Airways cancelled its services to Sharjah in 2017 due to diplomatic reasons.
During that period, Qatar Airways also announced flights to Khartoum, Mykonos, Málaga, Atlanta, and Phuket. The airline has also launched its inaugural flights to Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire.