Qatar Airways grounds Cebu-Doha flights

Qatar Airways flights between Cebu and Doha has been finally grounded.

The airline said in a statement that it had to stop its flights to Cebu effective from March 26, 2012, because of the high operating costs in the Philippines.

The discontinuing of direct Cebu-Doha flights is likely to affect overseas Filipino workers from the Visayas as well as the arrivals of business and leisure travelers from Europe and the Middle East.

The airline had been operating flights between Cebu and Doha three-times every week, prior to taking decision to finally ground it.

The decision to end Cebu-Doha flights has been taken now even as Qatar’s ruler Shiekh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is due to visit Manila later this month.

Earlier, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines also took a decision to end its flights between Manila to Amsterdam because of the common carrier’s tax imposed by the Government of Philippines. This was KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ last direct flight between the Philippines and Europe.