Qatar’s national airline, Qatar Airways has been chosen as the Official Airline Partner for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 to be held in the Gulf nation later this year. The announcement regarding the partnership between Doba-based airline and Geneva-based FIFA was made by Abu Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, at the closing of the FIFA Club World Cup which concluded on February 12.

The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held in Qatar from November 21 to December 18. A total of 210 teams to participate in the qualifiers and only 15 teams, besides the host Qatar, will make it to the actual tournament. The qualifiers will start on March 17th. The World Cup matches will be held in the cities of Doha, Al Wakrah, Al Rayyan and Al Khor. The event is expected to attract football fans from all across the world. 

With only a few months to go for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, football enthusiasts can book travel packages through Qatar Airways. The airline has introduced flexible booking options and fans can also book seats for preferred matches by selecting from seven-tiered travel packages that include flights, tickets and accommodation options.

Qatar Airways has been sponsoring the FIFA Club World Cups since 2017. This was the fifth time that the airline was sponsoring the event. The first two were the 2017 and 2018 editions which took place in the UAE and the other two were hosted in Qatar in 2019 and 2020. Both of these editions drew many tourists to Qatar’s shores. The FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 which took place in December 2021 was also sponsored by the airline. 

Apart from FIFA World Cup, last year the Airline sponsored the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020. The airline has built a global sports partnership portfolio by being associated with football-governing bodies such as FIFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. The airline also sponsors major football clubs like Al Sadd SC, Boca Juniors, FC Bayern Munchen and Paris Saint-German. 

As global aviation and tourism recovers from over two-year-long disruption due to Covid-19 pandemic, Qatar Airways continues to extend and rebuild its network, which currently connects 140 countries. The airline was announced ‘Airline of the Year’ by the international air transport rating organisation, Skytrax and was also given five other awards.