Qatar seems to be gearing up for a major assault on Europe, with new routes and upgrading of aircraft.
- Starting January 17, Brussels (5x a week), Bucharest and Budapest (4x a week – same flight) will join the network.
- Starting March 6, Stuttgart sticks one finger at Emirates, and goes 3x a week.
- Starting March 27, Copenhagen will go daily
- And around the same date, an up-scale from a A319 to a A330 will occur from Barcelona.
This is one hell of an attack – and it’s still attacking capitals rather than regions, but maybe Qatar are taking a chance on expansion whilst the opportunity is there. Certainly the launch of the route from STR will annoy Emirates who have had trouble obtaining slots within Germany.