LATAM Airlines shares soar as Qatar takes stake

Its operation profit is up from 34.2 billion riyal in fiscal year 2014-2015 to 35.6 billion riyals last year, said Akbar. The amount is four times greater than the one registered in the fiscal year of 2015, when the profit was QAR 374 million (USD 102.71 million).

The contract shows a strong economic outlook for Qatar Airways, and comes on the day the carrier announced its financial report for FY2016, which showed a growth rate of 28 per cent.

The deal, announced at the Farnborough air show in England, follows Qatar Airways’ purchase a year ago of 15 percent of British Airways owner International Airlines Group ICAG.L , which, like Qatar and LATAM, is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance.

Air travellers have chosen Qatar Airways (QA) as the World’s Best Business Class at 2016 World Airline Awards and voted it Best Business Class Airline Lounge and Best Airline Staff Service in the Middle East. USA and European carriers have criticised Qatar Airways and other Arabian Gulf airlines for allegedly receiving billions of dollars in state subsidies – a claim the Gulf carriers have denied. Qatar Airways, as the launch customer for the offering, will be upgrading its entire fleet of 53 777s. New aircrafts began daily flights to Guangzhou, China, Geneva, Switzerland and Warsaw, Poland from Doha’s Hamad International Airport.

In this period the company added 13 new destinations and increased its network to more than 150 destinations.

The destinations Qatar Airways added during the 2016 fiscal year are; Abha, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Boston, Durban, Faisalabad, Los Angeles, Multan, Nagpur, Ras Al Khaimah, Sialkot, Sydney, and Zanzibar. He said Tuesday that the airline was “very proud” to partner with Qatar Airways.