01 July 2012 : As from today Direct Maintenance and Qatar Airways have embarked on a large partnership which will see Direct Maintenance providing dedicated line maintenance support to the Qatar Airways operations at multiple line stations across East-Africa as well as Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This large teaming with Qatar Airways once again highlights the outstanding and professional service level Direct Maintenance delivers to high profile airlines carriers. The multiple station agreement currently being rolled out covers the following:

Dar es Salaam (DAR): A320 passenger operations, from 01 Jul 2012 (new station for DMX)
Nairobi (NBO): B777F freighters plus A320 passenger operations, from 01 Jul 2012
Amsterdam (AMS): B777F freighters from 15 Jul 2012 (connecting Doha to Chicago in the USA)
Kilimanjaro (JRO): A320 passenger operations from 25 Jul 2012, (new route for QR, new station for DMX)
Mombasa (MBA): A320 passenger operations, from 15 Aug 2012 (new route for QR),
Zanzibar (ZNZ): A320 passenger operations, formal start date to be announced by QR (new route for QR)

Roger Meels, Technical Director, comments: “All of us at Direct Maintenance feel very privileged partnering with Qatar Airways to this extend. Providing such a wide multiple station coverage to a 5 Star carrier is unique for us, as well it is a clear testament for the outstanding performance of our highly customer focused staff members. We look very much forward supporting Qatar Airways in these locations and possibly expand our teaming over time while QR grows its global network further.”

Qatar Airways, the 5 star national flag carrier of the State of Qatar, was founded in 1993 and commenced operations in 1994. Qatar Airways is one of the fastest growing carriers in the world, now having a fleet of 109 aircraft with another 188 on order, while rapidly expanding its route network. On average in 2012 a new aircraft is being delivered every 15 days. Qatar Airways is the launch customer for the A350, of which 80 were ordered. Also 30 each B787 and 10 each A380’s are scheduled to be delivered in the coming years, next to 12 each B777’s and 46 each A320’s. To cater for this growth, a new airport in Doha, its home base, will be opened on 12 December 2012, with a total capacity of 50 million passengers.