The Middle Eastern carrier began U.S. service with flights to Washington last year from its base in Qatar’s capital city of Doha. The carrier also added flights to New York. But a plan to expand to Houston stalled after deliveries of long-range Boeing (nyse: BA – news – people )-777 aircraft were delayed because of a machinists strike at Boeing. The airline now expects to launch that route in March.

Executive Vice President Ali M. Al Rais told a press luncheon Tuesday he sees future growth in the North American market, but did not specify which cities the carrier is eyeing next. He also said the carrier is looking to add service to South America and Australia – two continents where it does not currently fly.

Qatar currently has 64 aircraft, only 4 of which are Boeing 777s. The rest are made by Airbus. It has 168 Boeing aircraft on order, and 13 Airbus. The jets on order are worth about $40 billion.

The carrier said it hopes to grow its fleet eventually to 120 to 150 jets, with an average fleet age of about 3 to 3.5 years.

Al Rais said the company will “visualize and adjust” its growth plan according to global economic conditions.

But he shrugged off suggestions that the carrier might be affected by the slowing global economy.

The 2008 Global Winners of the World Travel Awards – also known as the travel industry’s ‘Oscars’ – were announced at the 15th Annual World Gala Ceremony which took place at Beaches resort on the Caribbean island of Turks & Caicos.

In a worldwide survey conducted by World Travel Awards, professionals in the travel and tourism industry initially voted Qatar Airways as the Middle East’s Leading Business Class Airline for the second year running.

Subsequently, the winners from each region were put forward to the international final which saw airlines, hotels, cruise operators and travel ancillary companies from across the globe compete against each other to be named the world’s best.

Hailed as the world’s largest and most important international awards for the travel industry, The World Travel Awards aims to encourage supreme excellence, value, innovation and quality in every aspect of the customer offering.

Qatar Airways has won many awards this year and this latest accolade from the World Travel Awards brings the total number to ten.

“With recognition for all elements of Qatar Airways’ service this year both in the sky as well as on the ground, from the premium terminal and business class to its first-rate cabin crew and inflight entertainment, the airline can celebrate a hugely positive 2008,” a spokesman said.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar al-Baker expressed his delight that travel industry peers had, once again, recognised the airline for its premium service saying: “2008 has seen Qatar Airways continue to go from strength to strength. The fact that the airline has been awarded such an impressive number of industry honours is testament to the fact that our efforts in providing a superior service both onboard and on the ground have been recognised.”

“To be named as having the best business class in the world at the biggest travel event of the year by the most prestigious industry awards body just goes to prove that, once again, Qatar Airways is seen by the travel industry as the preferred airline for frequent corporate travellers not only in the Middle East but worldwide.”

“This award is recognition that Qatar Airways continues to lead what is a highly competitive aviation industry by offering the most innovative premium services to our valued customers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who works at Qatar Airways for making the airline the success that it is today,” al-Baker added.

Qatar Airways operates a young and modern fleet of 64 Boeing and Airbus aircraft serving 83 cities across Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Far East and North America.

“The accused was fully drunk and assaulting co-passengers and crew members. People felt terrorised, so I had no option but to land the plane at Karachi. It was impossible to continue the seven-hour flight to Bangkok,” the Qatar Airways pilot told the Upper Criminal Court.

The accused, a GCC national, began creating a ruckus two hours after the plane left the Doha International Airport. He was demanding that the flight be diverted to Jakarta. The pilot said the nearest airport where he could land the plane was Karachi, so he decided to land there. “It took us four hours from Doha to reach the Pakistani port city,” said the pilot.

The prosecution has charged the accused with assaulting two crew members, trying to forcibly redirect the flight to Jakarta, endangering the lives of fellow passengers and behaving irresponsibly on government property.

Cabin crew members tried hard to control the man, who was travelling in First Class with his wife, the pilot told the court.

According to the pilot, the landing at Karachi “put extra financial burden on our airline.

The latest award from Aviation Business – a leading Middle East-based publication – recognises the airline’s complete onboard experience including inflight entertainment, cuisine and customer service.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker expressed his delight over the latest award to join the airline’s growing trophy cabinet. “Qatar Airways is already one of only a handful of airlines in the world with a Five Star ranking for service and excellence. To be honoured with this latest award is yet further testament to the superior onboard experience that the airline offers to its passengers both in terms of cabin crew service and inflight entertainment,” said Al Baker.

He went on to praise the airline’s cabin crew saying: “Our cabin crew continue to demonstrate commitment and dedication to the airline in doing an outstanding job of looking after our passengers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support and to highlight how well-deserved this award is. The inflight service, coupled with our industry benchmark inflight entertainment system and high quality onboard meals, provide our passengers with the best all-round experience that they can find in the skies today. Qatar Airways’ onboard cuisine is of the highest quality with specially chosen and prepared meals by our catering team for service in all classes of travel.”

Among its world-class onboard innovations, Qatar Airways offers personal video screens in all classes featuring interactive Audio and Video On Demand entertainment, a First Class Lounge onboard Airbus A340s and 180-degree flat beds on Boeing 777s. In addition, Qatar Airways was the first international carrier to offer live digital satellite television onboard its A330, A340 and Boeing 777 aircraft on selected routes.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges selected from within the aviation industry and the event was attended by more than 250 of the region’s leading aviation, airline and airport professionals.

Qatar Airways has boosted the number of Japanese flight attendants by more than 50 per cent to 35 crew with new recruits having recently joined the airline from across Japan.

The new recruits have embarked on an intensive seven-week cabin crew training course at Qatar Airways’ head office in Doha, before taking to the skies. The airline has also hired the services of Mrs. Masako Hanzawa, a Japanese cabin crew instructor based in Tokyo, to work with Qatar Airways’ crew training department in Doha on educating all flight attendants about Japanese culture and etiquette.

Next month, a team from Qatar Airways’ recruitment department will be heading to Osaka and Tokyo for another round of interviews to hire additional Japanese crew.

Osaka officially becomes Qatar Airways’ 60th destination on its rapidly-growing global route network on 31 March 2005 with the launch of four flights a week between Doha, capital of the State of Qatar, and Japan’s commercial centre.

The airline prides itself on employing male and female crew from around the world with more than 50 different nationalities currently working as flight attendants.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the company was committed to hiring crew from around the world to ensure the highest levels of service to passengers, whether they travel on business or leisure.

“Japan is one of our most important route launches of 2005 and we are very excited to be soon offering our Five Star service to the people of Japan and both business and leisure passengers from around the world travelling on our global network,” he said.

“Our Osaka flights will have Japanese-speaking cabin crew and Japanese cuisine to make the atmosphere onboard feel more like home for many of our passengers.

“Our Japanese crew have fitted well into our multi-cultural airline and we are delighted to be welcoming more trainees from Japan over the next few months.”

The Osaka service marks Qatar Airways’ first foray into the Japanese market and the route is expected to help meet demand from business and leisure travellers between the Middle East and Japan.

The new route will be operated with the modern Airbus A330-200 in a three-class configuration. The First Class cabin has 12 seats that convert to 180-degree flat beds, Business Class offers 18 seats that recline 160 degrees, while Economy features 208 seats.

The Airbus A330-200 features Qatar Airways’ award-winning Audio Video On Demand system, allowing passengers in all three classes to choose from a list of more than 40 international movies, as well as short programmes to view on their individual TV screens.

Passengers can also listen to an extensive list of 250 CDs and 16 audio channels. In addition, there is a choice of 12 video games to play through the interactive TV screens.

As part of its launch into the Japanese market, Qatar Airways will be offering members of its Privilege Club frequent flyer programme with double miles for the first full month of the Osaka service.

Privilege Club members travelling on domestic or international services of Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways will be able to accrue Qmiles for later redemption on flights on the Qatar Airways network and partner airlines.

From April 1, 2005, Qatar Airways will place its QR flight code on ANA-operated domestic flights within Japan, between Osaka Kansai and Tokyo Haneda, Fukuoka and Sapporo, to offer its passengers with connections to and from key Japanese cities.