Qatar Airways on February 19 announced plans to launch flights to the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. The airline will commence twice-weekly flights from its Doha hub to Shiraz International Airport on June 5.   Shiraz will become the airline’s 101st global destination and third route to Iran. The carrier already operates double daily services to the capital city of Tehran and five-flights-a-week to Mashhad in northern Iran.News of the new route further enhances Qatar Airways’ commitment to Iran, where it first began operating services to the country in 2004 with the launch of the Tehran route, followed a year later by Mashhad.

The new services will be operated with the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft, which features 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy.   Traffic for the new route is expected to come from around the Persian Gulf region as well as Europe and North America, according to Qatar Airways.   Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said that the launch of flights to Shiraz supported the company’s business plan of operating to key cities around the world that the airline had identified as underserved.Qatar Airways is pleased to be bringing its third route to Iran online in early June. Iran is still largely underserved by international carriers and Shiraz in particular presents Qatar Airways with an opportunity to target new business,he said.The potential is significant and we are looking forward to developing our market prospects with the launch of these new flights.As the route to Shiraz develops, we will also look to add frequency and capacity to improve connectivity even further,added Al Baker.