Qatar to Fly Non-Stop to Philadelphia (PHL)!

by Adam

Qatar Airways made the big announcement on their Twitter page earlier this morning. They’ll be using a B777 on the route to Doha and Philadelphia will be Qatar’s 5th US gateway. With the pending AA/US merger and Qatar’s anticipated October/November entry into oneWorld, the PHL selection seems to make sense.

a plane flying in the sky

Qatar Airways is currently a oneworld member designate, meaning that within the next 6-12 months you should be able to redeem American AAdvantage or other oneworld carrier miles for this flight. If availability is as generous as it was during the Continental(UA)/Qatar partnership, this could be a pretty sweet (and reasonable) redemption opportunity…

Related – see Qatar to Launch Direct JFK – Athens Service

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9 comments

Nic May 6, 2013 - 7:43 am

I highly doubt that the merger had anything to do with that announcement. The planning time to open a new city are longer.

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Gary May 6, 2013 - 8:07 am

Of course the AA/US merger drives this. PHL doesn’t make any sense at all without the US traffic feed at PHL. If it makes sense at all, which I’m not sure.

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naif May 6, 2013 - 8:38 am

Dallas, Atlanta and Boston coming soon

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Nic May 6, 2013 - 8:43 am

It helps but I don’t think it is the driver. As I said the planning takes longer than a few months since merger was announced. Plus remember it was BA promoting Qatar into OW not AA. If it was for the feed, they would have started with MIA connecting all the South America traffic, even DFW.
I think PHL has a good catchment area, that can survive by itself.

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Nic May 6, 2013 - 8:49 am

By the end of 2014 all of the big three and probably TK will have 4 to 5 destinations on the east coast.

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Paul May 6, 2013 - 10:08 am

is this a 2cabin plane?

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Andrew May 6, 2013 - 11:23 am

I’m surprised that Etihad & Qatar don’t yet fly to West Coast (SFO & LAX) like Emirates does

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Bits ‘n Pieces for May 6, 2013 - View from the Wing May 6, 2013 - 12:12 pm

[…] know if they’ll make it, but I like that hey have an aggressive timeline. They also intend to launch Philadelphia service, no doubt because oneworld will have a hub there with the US Airways/American merger. Pizza in […]

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Travel Summary – 5/6/13 May 6, 2013 - 4:01 pm

[…] Me to the Plane notes that Qatar Airways  (Oneworld partner) will now be flying to […]

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