Qatar Airways announce new flight connections between Malaga and Doha

Qatar Airways have announced brand new flight links between Malaga and Doha, linking the Costa del Sol to the capital of Qatar for the first time. Beginning operations on June 4th, 2018, the airline will link both cities four times a week with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with a capacity of up to 280 passengers.

Presented at the International Tourism Exchange in Berlin, Qatar Airways announced an expansion plan with 16 new destinations for 2018-2019 including European destinations like Mykonos, Cardiff and Lisbon.

Malaga airport is the fourth busiest airport in Spain, and has benefited greatly from the recent expansion of flights which its new infrastructure is fully equipped to withstand. The new flight route between Malaga and Doha will provide the most convenient link to the Middle East from the south of Spain yet, and is expected to draw an influx of tourism from the region this summer.

The announcement has certainly caught the attention of the property sector, seeking to benefit from a significant continued investment from Middle Eastern buyers. The IMF ranked Qatar as the world's richest country in 2017 and predicts its GDP per capita in 2018 to be $65,160, compared with Spain's $30,690 and the UK's $40,003. The spending power of Middle Eastern buyers is already being felt on the Costa del Sol, accounting for 8% of property transactions in the region in January 2017.

As long-range aviation technology continues to improve, so do the possibilities of increased access to far-flung destinations and new influences to the already vastly cosmopolitan Costa del Sol. The new flight links will certainly further push investments to the region to new heights in 2018 and beyond.