The Qatar Airways, the first Arabic airliner to open routes between Beijing and the Middle East, said in Beijing it was confident about the route's future.

December 25 was the one-month anniversary of operation of the new route.

The Asian games in Doha in 2006 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008 will further promote exchanges between China and the Middle East, thus creating more demand for Beijing-Doha route, said Huang Shenglu, general manager of the Qatar Airways China.

The Qatar Airways started preparation for launching a China route a few years ago. Now there are two Chinese cabin crew on each flight. Chinese passengers can easily find people who speak Chinese in the Doha airport.

Experts said the Beijing route is strategic for the Qatar Airways. Due to its middle location, Chinese passengers can transfer to flights continuing on to Egypt, Iran, Maldives, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and some other nations which lack direct flights.

From December 15, group Chinese travelers were allowed to visit eight African nations. Due to the lack of direct flights between China and Africa, the travel to Africa is quite expensive for Chinese tourists. The new routes the Qatar Airways launched to Seychelles early this month and to South Africa next January will provide more convenience for potential travelers to Africa.

The nine-hour flight takes off from Beijing at 11:30 PM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and arrives at Doha at 4:10 next morning. The Airbus A330-200 aircraft in operation has 12 business seats and 226 economy seats. The self-controlled video and audio system equipped on every seat on board pioneers many other airlines.

Established in 1993, the Qatar Airways has one of the world's youngest fleet, with the aircraft number reaching 38 by 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2004)