Qatar Airways Celebrates Official Kickoff of FIFA World Cup 2018

DOHA, Qatar 14 Jun. As the Official Partner and Official Airline of FIFA, Qatar Airways is celebrating the kickoff of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia^TM by bringing football fans from around the world to Russia to watch one of the most highly-anticipated events on the global sports calendar.

To celebrate the start of the tournament, the award-winning airline has provided its social media followers and football fans a unique opportunity with its #OnYourFeet challenge, an interactive social media contest where participants create a short video of themselves freestyling with a football and share their favourite tricks with the world. The winning contestants will receive two Business Class tickets to any destination on the award-winning airline’s global route network.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia^TM has begun, marking an entire month of excitement as fans from around the world gather in Russia to celebrate their love for football. Whether you are a football enthusiast, dedicated to supporting your national team or even your favourite local team, the World Cup is a global event that unites us all, and we are thrilled to be supporting such a world-class sporting occasion.”

The award-winning airline recently captured the excitement of the upcoming tournament by launching its new 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia^TM campaign, featuring a re-recording of the classic song ‘Dancing in the Street’ sung by renowned singer and TV star Nicole Scherzinger. The upbeat TV commercial has seen tremendous global success, with more than 20 million views across the airline’s social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Last month, the carrier launched its ‘FIFA Fan Match’ social media contest. Participants were asked to describe themselves using five emojis for a chance to win tickets to watch the semi-finals in Saint Petersburg. The highly-engaging campaign was tremendously successful, with five lucky winners from around the world looking forward to attending the World Cup semi-finals match in Russia.

In celebration of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™, Qatar Airways, in collaboration with SC and Hamad International Airport (HIA), have transformed HIA into a fan zone, ensuring that the thousands of passengers travelling through it never miss a moment of the World Cup’s excitement. Dedicated football fans transiting through the airport will be able to watch the matches, which will be broadcast live in three beautifully themed viewing areas in concourses A, B and C, as well as in Qatar Duty Free’s (QDF) Marché restaurant. The three viewing areas have been designed to resemble a living room, a stadium and a majlis – a traditional Arabic seating area where guests are received.

Qatar Airways provides triple-daily services to Moscow and daily flights to Saint Petersburg. In December 2017, Qatar Airways launched a new daily service to the cultural capital of Russia, St. Petersburg, doubling the number of Russian destinations operated by the carrier. The addition of St. Petersburg to Qatar Airways’ route map demonstrates the importance of the Russian market to the carrier, which has been flying to Moscow since 2004.

Earlier this year, Qatar Airways signed an MoU with Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport, Russia’s third-largest airport, committing to a potential acquisition of up to 25 per cent of the airport’s total shares, complementing the strong ties established with the country, and in support of the airline’s existing investment strategy.

To celebrate the Year of Culture between the State of Qatar and Russia, the airline also earlier this year announced a five-year partnership with Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair, a prestigious event that unites the contemporary Russian art market and helps its contributors establish contacts with the international art community.

In May 2017, Qatar Airways announced the groundbreaking sponsorship deal with FIFA, which saw the award-winning airline become the Official Partner and Official Airline of FIFA until 2022. The partnership, one of the biggest sporting sponsorships in the world, gives Qatar Airways extensive marketing and branding rights at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ and the 2022 World Cup Qatar™, with an expected audience reach of more than two billion people per tournament.

The agreement sees Qatar Airways become the Official Airline Partner of the FIFA Club World Cup™, the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, the FIFA Under-20 and Under 17 World Cups™, the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup™, and the FIFA Interactive World Cup™.

The award-winning airline has received a record number of accolades recently, including ‘Airline of the Year’ by the prestigious 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards, which was held at the Paris Air Show. This is the fourth time that Qatar Airways has been given this global recognition. In addition to being voted Best Airline by travellers from around the world, Qatar’s national carrier also won a raft of other major awards at the ceremony, including ‘Best Airline in the Middle East’, ‘World’s Best Business Class’ and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge’.

Qatar Airways recently revealed a host of upcoming new global destinations, including the announcement that it will be the first Gulf carrier to begin direct service to Luxembourg. Other exciting new destinations to be launched by the airline include Tallinn, Estonia; Valletta, Malta; Langkawi, Malaysia and Da Nang, Vietnam.