Qatar Airways currently serves the Doha – Tokyo route daily via the Japanese city of Osaka.

With the launch of the new non-stop service to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, passengers from Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Africa can now take advantage of a seamless one-stop connection to Japan’s capital city via Doha.

Travellers from Japan will also have easier access to more than 100 destinations worldwide with one-stop flying to Doha first and then onwards to popular cities such as Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Vienna, Budapest, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, New York and Montreal.

Qatar Airways launched flights to the Land of the Rising Sun in 2005 with Osaka becoming its first Japanese route. In 2010, the carrier introduced Tokyo to its operations, via Osaka. With today’s announcement to de-link flights, Qatar Airways’ Osaka route becomes a dedicated non-stop service and frequency effectively doubled between Qatar and Japan.

The airline will serve Tokyo with its flagship Boeing 777-200 aircraft in a two class-configuration of 42 seats in Business Class and 217 in Economy. Passengers can look forward to exceptional levels of comfort and Qatar Airways’ renowned award-winning Five Star hospitality.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the Japan frequency increase demonstrated the airline’s commitment to the Japanese market

“Today’s announcement is a significant step by Qatar Airways as we show our confidence in the Japanese travel market,” he said.

“Japan has been a key market for us ever since we launched operations to Osaka in 2005. Two years ago, Qatar Airways began daily flights to Tokyo, but we have been working closely with the local authorities to ensure we secure suitable slots at Narita to make Tokyo a non-stop service which now becomes a reality from October 28 at the start of the Northern Winter flying programme.

“This is great news for our existing passengers travelling to and from Tokyo, as well as our trade partners with whom we work closely to develop our business in and out of Japan.”

Added Al Baker: “Qatar Airways has built up a solid reputation among the travel trade and business community across Japan.

“A dedicated Tokyo service means a great deal to the travel community in and around Japan’s capital city, as we are now able to offer an enhanced one-stop product taking passengers to an exciting array of destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa and The Americas. Similarly, we are now able to offer a one-stop service from our network to Tokyo via Doha.”

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 15 years of operation, currently operating a modern fleet of 109 aircraft to 116 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

Since the beginning of the year, Qatar Airways has launched flights to Baku (Azerbaijan); Tbilisi (Georgia); Kigali (Rwanda); Zagreb (Croatia), Erbil (Iraq), and Baghdad (Iraq), with many more new destinations planned during 2012.

Over the next few months, Qatar Airways launches services to a diverse portfolio of new routes, including Perth, Australia (July 3); Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (July 25); Mombasa, Kenya (August 15); Yangon, Myanmar (October 3) and a date yet-to-be-announced to the Serbian capital Belgrade.