DOHA, Qatar – Qatar Airways is pleased to announce that an agreement with FC Barcelona has been reached to renew the partnership with FC Barcelona’s first team until 30 June 2017. The agreement will allow the award-winning carrier and the world’s best football club to partner together for another season of world-class football.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Three years ago, the joining of FCB and Qatar Airways was truly history in the making, as this was the first time we entered into such a landmark sports partnership. We feel very proud of the milestones achieved by the team during the last few years and it is a great honour to have the opportunity to remain standing side by side with the club. This new agreement shows the world how strongly we stand behind FC Barcelona, and we look forward to a great upcoming season together.”

Qatar Airways entered into a strategic three-year partnership with FC Barcelona in July 2013 which has seen the airline develop a multitude of activations together with the club that have gone well beyond simply having the name of the carrier on the team jerseys. The airline proudly features the team in its very own safety video, shown to all passengers before departure, which also became a hit across all social media channels, generating nearly 40 million views within the first four weeks of its debut.

Since the partnership took effect, Qatar Airways has launched a number of hugely successful campaigns including “The Land of FCB” and “The FCB Holiday” - building on the concept of ‘a team that unites the world’ - and has officially sponsored the FC Barcelona summer tours. In addition, the airline painted the FC Barcelona custom-designed Boeing 777, introduced unique tour and match packages for fans looking to visit Barcelona through the Qatar Airways Holidays division and has organised a number of very successful social media contests to celebrate the sponsorship with the fans.

As one of the world’s fastest growing airlines with more than 150 destinations, Qatar Airways has helped Barcelona widen its fan network around the world, while at the same time championing their shared values of excellence and pride in their community bases.

Qatar Airways and FC Barcelona have also worked closely to develop strategies to promote Barcelona in Asia, and this has produced an important increase in passengers from Asia Pacific to Barcelona.

At the same time, since the commencement of the sponsorship in 2013, Qatar Airways has also doubled its frequencies to both Madrid and Barcelona, expanding both routes to full double daily services, bringing thousands of tourists every week to Spain from around the world.

Qatar Airways currently operates 14 weekly non-stop flights from Barcelona to Doha with great connections to points across the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.

The airline has seen rapid growth and it currently flies a modern fleet of 188 aircraft to more than 150 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.