Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operations, and currently flies a modern fleet of 131 aircraft to key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas.— VNS Photo

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Qatar Airways' inaugural flight to Philadelphia touched down on Wednesday morning, marking the carrier's fifth gateway in the US.

With the launch of the daily service between Philadelphia and Qatar Airways's hub in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the city becomes the airline's 137th destination in its expanding worldwide network.

Qatar Airways now operates 35 flights a week between the US and Doha, flying daily from New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia.

Qatar Airways CEO Al Baker said: "Today, Philadelphia joins our existing North American hubs of Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Houston, and Montreal.

"But only our newest gateway offers a unique morning route to Doha, our earliest departure from North America, and provides passengers with unprecedented access to a new schedule of convenient connections to our entire global network."

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 17 years of operations, and currently flies a modern fleet of 131 aircraft to key business and leisure destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas.

Qatar Airways is set to launch services to many new destinations in 2014 including Larnaca in Cyprus, Sabiha Gukçen Airport in Turkey, Edinburgh in Scotland, Miami and Dallas in the US, Haneda in Japan and Djibouti.— VNS