Qatar Airways exhibited its latest suite of amenity kits and its newly unveiled Boeing 787 Dreamliner Business and Economy Class seats, housed in a custom-designed exhibition stand, which was making its debut at ITB. The first of 60 Boeing 787s, of which Qatar Airways is the Middle East launch customer, will join the fleet this summer. With 14 new routes being added to the airlines' international network during 2012, there was huge interest among visitors keen to learn more about the airline's global expansion and about the New Doha International Airport, set to open at the end of the year. Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker hosted a press conference on the opening day of the five-day event, announcing expansion plans with the launch of flights to Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Erbil and Baghdad in Iraq, Belgrade in Serbia and the Myanmar capital Yangon. These new routes will be part of an overall expansion during 2012, which will also see the launch of previously announced services to the Rwandan capital Kigali starting 21 March; to Croatia's capital city Zagreb starting from 9 May 9; Perth in Australia from 3 July; and Mombasa (Kenya) on 15 August. The European capital cities of Tbilisi in Georgia and Baku in Azerbaijan were the airline's first new routes of 2012, which began 1 February. Additional new routes launching this year with dates yet to be announced are Zanzibar (Tanzania), Helsinki (Finland), and Gassim (Saudi Arabia). During the show, Qatar Airways also announced a number of capacity increases to various destinations, including Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, Milan, Algiers, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, and Kuwait City, as well as new cargo flights to Karachi, Johannesburg, Seoul and Muscat.
