In order to honour its valuable partnerships, Qatar Airways recently organised a familiarisation trip exclusively for key partners of the travel and trade fraternity in Colombo.

The invitees, who were accompanied by the airline’s Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives Ajay Jacob, were flown to Athens, Greece where they spent three nights enjoying the best of Greek hospitality.Qatar Airways Vice President for the Indian Subcontinent Ihab Sorial said, “It was a pleasure and privilege to invite our distinguished business partners from Sri Lanka to Athens. We are very pleased that they were able to experience Qatar Airways’ five-star service and award-winning hospitality while we enhanced our already strong partnership which will promote even further business growth.”

The familiarisation trip to Athens was in acknowledgement of the valued services of the travel trade partners in promoting Qatar Airways in Sri Lanka and to also allow them to experience first-hand the award-winning service on-board Qatar Airways.At t he same ti me, t he invitees were able to enjoy the best of Athens, witnessing the spectacular, historical and tourist places that the classical city has to offer.

They were also able to experience one of the largest Premium class lounges in the world, the Al Mourjan Business lounge at Doha’s Hamad International Airport, with 10,000 square metres of bespoke design features. The dedicated lounge for First and Business Class offers Qatar Airways’ Premium travellers unrivalled Qatari hospitality and signature five-star service thanks to its varied rest and relaxation areas, nursery, prayer rooms, business centre and multiple dining options.

Qatar Airways was able to showcase to the invitees the new state-of-theart airport that has been designed with customer experience foremost in mind. The world-class facility offers stunning surroundings and architecture, with an excellent range of choices for shopping and dining.

The airport opened in the second quarter of 2014 and boasts over 600,000 square metres of space, 40,000 of which are dedicated to more than 70 top of the line retail outlets and more than 30 food and beverage options. Additional features include a hotel, a spa, a swimming pool, squash courts, gym, activity nodes and art installations throughout the terminal.

Qatar Airways, the national airline of the State of Qatar has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operation, to the point where today it is flying a modern fleet of 142 aircraft to 146 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, t he Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.