Qatar Airways is an airline based in Doha, Qatar. It operates a hub and spoke network based on Doha, linking 72 international destinations. Its main base is Doha International Airport (DOH). It is among the fastest growing airlines and one of the four airlines that have gained the "five star airline" status from Skytrax. Qatar Airways is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.The airline was established on 22 November 1993 and started operations on 20 January 1994. It was originally owned by members of the state's royal family but was relaunched in April 1997 by a new management team headed by Akbar Al Baker (Chief Executive). The airline is owned by the government of Qatar (50%) and private investors (50%).

Qatar Airways Privilege Club is the airlines Frequent Flyer Programme with the highest earn rate in the world. Qatar Airways is one of only four airlines that have achieved the five star status by an independent airline evaluation firm, Skytrax. Qatar Airways was the official airline for the 2006 Asian Games that was held in Doha, Qatar on 1-15 December 2006.Qatar Airways introduced a new livery for their planes in 2006. The first aircraft in the livery was an A340-600HGW. The livery was launched at ITB Berlin in March 2006, featuring the word "QATAR" emblazoned across the fuselage in burgundy, with the fin painted with the image of an oryx (the national animal and icon of Qatar). The livery was designed by Australian Marketing company Performa Global.

In November 2006, the airline announced 7 routes to be launched in 2007. These are: Lagos (Nigeria), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Newark (USA), and Washington D.C. (USA). Two other routes to Europe, Geneva and Stockholm will also be launched in 2007.Lagos has started on March 1, 2007 with thrice-weekly services non-stop from Doha using an Airbus A330-200 with a 2-class configuration. Dar es Salaam has already been the first 2007 new destination for the airline, and the carrier's 71st destination.Qatar Airways recently announced that it plans to make its first entry into the North American market in June 24, 2007 with direct non-stop scheduled flights to the United States using its new A340-600 HGW aircraft. It will start daily Washington D.C. (Dulles) flights starting June 24, 2007, where New York (Newark Liberty) flights will start June 28, 2007, with a thrice weekly A330-200 flight via Geneva, a new European destination.

The airline has launched nonstop flights to Madrid, replacing the Rome-Madrid sector. Starting summer 2007, the flights will be upgraded with the newer, A330-200 aircraft replacing the A300-600R on the route. The Doha-Berlin (TXL) flights will be upgraded to widebody aircraft instead of the Airbus A300-600R with an increase in weekly frequency. The airline recently added a sixth weekly flight to Osaka ahead of the Asian Games in Doha in December 2006, and has announced that services will be upgraded from the A330-200 to the A340-600 HGW. Starting later 2007, Hong Kong will also see an upgrade of aircraft from an A330-300 to an A340-600HGW on its daily service to Doha. Yangon is also upgraded to the larger A300 aircraft from the previous A319LR.Beginning April 2007, Chennai in southern India, and Ahmedabad, in western India, will join Qatar Airways’ burgeoning Indian network, which already includes non-stop services from Doha to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Cochin and Trivandrum.

Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, and the Gujarat capital of Ahmedabad, will each be served with seven flights a week from the start of the Summer 2007 flying season.Qatar Airways has been granted rights by the Indian government to increase capacity to the Mumbai and Trivandrum with its bigger Airbus A330 aircraft – almost doubling the number of seats on both routes, each served daily.The Cochin and Hyderabad flights will see frequency increase by two and three flights, respectively, to give both cities a daily operation, and each served with a two-class Airbus A321.

Qatar Airways normally operates 30 flights a week between Doha and five cities across India. Under the new bilateral arrangement, the airline will serve India with 49 flights a week. Beginning November 2007, Qatar Airways will start nonstop flights to the Swedish capital Stockholm using its A319-100LR aircraft. Qatar Airways applied to the Australian Government to fly daily from Doha to Sydney and Melbourne but this was rejected in late May.