Doha, QATAR – As part of its ongoing recruitment drive fuelled by the airline’s robust expansion, Qatar Airways recently participated in the ‘4th Annual Career Fair for Qatari Students studying in the UK’ where airline recruiters met potential candidates to discuss job prospects.

Attended by more than 200 students, the recruitment fair, held in London, targeted Qatari nationals looking for work in their home country Qatar following the completion of their studies.

The two-day event was organised and hosted by H.E. Khalid Al-Mansouri, Qatar’s Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary in the UK.

Qatar Airways, one of the event’s Gold sponsors, is forging ahead with its aggressive recruitment drive and plans to take on an additional 3,500 staff annually over a three-year period across the group. With 19,000 employees currently working with the Qatar Airways group of companies, the increase represents a 50 per cent addition to the head count by 2014.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker commented: “Having expanded at a significant pace over the past 14 years, we are continuing the ambitious growth strategy with vigour and, with it, present tremendous amount of job opportunities.

“We continue to be on the look-out for talented and hard working Qatari nationals to boost our staff strength. The Career Fair for Qatari students studying in the UK was an ideal platform in our ongoing search for young, qualified recruits. Our employees are key to the airline’s success and this event in London offered a fantastic opportunity for Qatar Airways management to meet potential stars of the future,” said Al Baker.

As a truly global airline covering six continents, Qatar Airways employs over 100 nationalities around the world. Each year, the carrier takes on 50 Qatari pilots, who are trained at the Qatar Aeronautical College and abroad. Qatari nationals are the second highest nationality group within Qatar Airways’ pilot community. The total number of pilots within Qatar Airways currently stands at over 1,500.

Apart from excellent opportunities in flight deck and flight operations, the airline also assists Qatari graduates in finding suitable professional placements in other areas such as engineering, commercial, ground operations, airport services, as well as sales and marketing.

Since January 2010, Qatar Airways has taken delivery of 24 new aircraft – a mix of wide-body Boeing 777s, narrow-body Airbus A320 Family aircraft and Bombardier business jets, the latter for the airline’s corporate jet division, Qatar Executive.

The airline’s Doha hub feeds passenger and cargo traffic to all parts of the world, offering convenient connections across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

By 2013, Qatar Airways plans to serve more than 120 key business and leisure destinations worldwide with a modern fleet of over 120 aircraft. Today, the airline’s fleet stands at 96 aircraft flying to 99 destinations worldwide, a figure set to surpass 120 cities within three years.

Over the next few months, Qatar Airways steps up its expansion with new routes and capacity increases to a number of destinations. On April 6, the airline launches its 100^th destination – to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo – followed in June by three further routes, the Iranian city of Shiraz (June 5), Italian city of Venice (June 15) and the carrier’s first entry into Canada with non-stop flights to Montreal (June 29).

On July 27, Qatar Airways begins flights to Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), the Bulgarian capital Sofia (September 14) and Norway’s capital city of Oslo (October 5).