Qatar Airways launched a twice-weekly service linking Doha with Bogota, Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela, on Wednesday, becoming what it called the first Gulf carrier to serve Venezuela.

The airline said it is also the first airline to fly nonstop from the Middle East to both Bogota and Caracas. The route is flown by Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, it said.

According to the airline’s schedule, flights run every Wednesday and Sunday. Flight QR783 leaves Doha at 7.35 am and arrives in Bogota at 4.25 pm, then leaves Bogota at 5.55 pm and arrives in Caracas at 9 pm. The return flight from Caracas leaves at 11.30 pm and arrives in Doha at 8.35 pm. All times are local.

Qatar Airways said the schedule offers onward connections through Hamad International Airport to markets including Australia, China, Japan, Lebanon, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

The airline said Bogota and Caracas are its 16th and 17th destinations in the Americas. It began serving South America in 2010 with its first flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Qatar Airways also said it recently expanded its partnership with LATAM to include LATAM Airlines Colombia. It will place its code on LATAM flights between Bogota and 17 Colombian cities, including Cartagena, Medellin, Cali, and Barranquilla, the airline said.

The airline said it is flying to more than 170 destinations this winter.

The inaugural flights were marked by Qatar Airways’ Vice President of Aeropolitical and Corporate Affairs, Sheikh Jassim Fahad Al-Thani, with Venezuela’s ambassador to Qatar, Carlos Jose Mata Figueroa, and Qatar’s ambassador to Venezuela, Salman Al-Khulaifi. At the Bogota ceremony, Colombia’s chargé d’affaires in Qatar, Camilo Vizcaya, was present.

Source: PR