Qatar Airways will further grow its operations in the former Yugoslavia this summer following frequency and capacity upgrades last year. In line with plans announced in 2017, the Qatari carrier will boost capacity on its fights between Doha and Sarajevo from the 144-seat Airbus A320 aircraft to the 182-seat A321 starting today, with the route to be maintained four times per week with a mix of both jets. "We plan to increase the Sarajevo route to daily and introduce the larger Airbus A321 aircraft", Qatar Airways' CEO, Akbar Al Baker, said recently. In addition, the airline has upgraded all of its daily services to Belgrade to the A321 and has received permits to run an additional four weekly flights to the Serbian capital, for a total of eleven. However, it is yet to schedule the additional frequencies. From July, Qatar Airways will also upgauge equipment on its Skopje service, which will run with a mix of A320/A321 aircraft.

Qatar Airways' Chief Commercial Officer, Ehab Amin, said the region remains an important one within the carrier's network, "We feel that the Balkans are underserved and we would like to provide countries in the Balkans with a five star product they deserve. That is why we are focusing on such markets with high opportunities, which benefits both sides, the people in these countries and Qatar Airways as well. We will continue to seek opportunities in this region". On the other hand, Mr Al Baker noted, "This region is growing. It is becoming affluent and at the same time there is economic growth here and an airline plays a very important part in the economic growth of a country. So we intend to continue our expansion in Eastern Europe. We still have several destinations in the Balkans which we will launch".

Despite interest in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital has not been included in the airline's raft of upcoming new routes for 2018 and 2019. Zagreb remains Qatar Airways' most frequent destination in the former Yugoslavia with a total of two daily flights. The airline is considering increasing capacity on the route next year, with the deployment of wide-body aircraft. Meanwhile, the General Manager of Tuzla AIrport, Rifet Karasalihović, noted, "Qatar Airways has shown interest in cooperating with us, so we can first and foremost become an alternative to Sarajevo in case of adverse weather conditions and later see the establishment of regular charter flights".