XIAMEN, China and DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 31, Xiamen Airlines officially launched the Xiamen-Doha flight route. This not only established a new "air silk road" between these two world-renowned coastal cities, but also marked the first direct flight route to Doha from Fujian Province, China.

Doha is the largest city in Qatar that serves as a financial, trade, and conference & exhibition center, as well as a pivotal transportation hub between West Asia, Africa, and Europe; Xiamen is a pivotal regional aviation hub and global transit hub on the southeast coast of China. As the largest airline headquartered in Xiamen, Xiamen Airlines has launched routes from Xiamen to 21 international cities such as Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo, and established an international flight network that extends to North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. Moreover, Xiamen Airlines also boasts a well-developed domestic flight network that caters to 52 domestic cities with a daily average of more than 170 inbound and outbound flights.

With the launch of the Xiamen-Doha flight route, passengers no longer have to transit at Shanghai, Guangzhou, among other cities, which can save them a lot of time. Besides this, Xiamen Airlines has established all-around partnerships with Qatar Airways which involve interline check-in, through-check baggage, and lounge access sharing in Doha, providing passengers with a versatile range of transit plans and "all-in-one" tickets for transit travels, and passengers can transit at Doha on their way to more than 160 destinations around the world such as Dammam, Lagos, and Algiers. Moreover, a network of versatile flight routes and transit services provided by Xiamen Airlines can efficiently enable transit from Europe, the United States, and Africa to major domestic cities (or vice versa) to cater to the needs of passengers.

There are two flights every Tuesday and Friday between Xiamen and Doha. The flight to Doha departs from Xiamen at 0:05 (GMT+8) and arrives at 5:00 (local time), and the return flight departs at 19:30 (local time) from Doha and arrives in Xiamen at 7:55 (GMT+8) on the next day morning. This route is operated by Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and features a well-designed schedule that makes it convenient for passengers to arrange their subsequent itineraries.

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Xiamen Airlines has launched and rebooted many international routes. On October 29, after the winter/spring season started, Xiamen Airlines planned to operate 51 international/regional routes with 584 flights per week, which were equal to 92% of weekly flights prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, there were 24 routes of flights to 14 overseas destinations in 10 countries along the Belt and Road route.

The launch of the Xiamen-Doha route will complement with the Beijing-Doha route, thus facilitating a higher level of trade, cultural exchanges, and business and tourism cooperation between China and Qatar.