Qatar Airways, sponsor of the electric street racing series, The ABB FIA Formula E Championship, was the official airline partner and title sponsor of Saturday’s highly-anticipated 2018 Qatar Airways Paris E-Prix, which took place around the architectural complex of Les Invalides in the French capital. This is the second consecutive year that the National Carrier of the State of Qatar has partnered with the Paris E-Prix.
Earlier this year, the airline enhanced its highly-successful sponsorship of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship electric street racing series, demonstrating its commitment to environmentally friendly initiatives.
After presenting the trophy to the winner, Jean-Éric Vergne, on Saturday evening, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are delighted to be the official sponsor of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, and to have once again taken part in this exciting event in Paris. Formula E was a natural choice when choosing an environmentally friendly sporting partnership for Qatar Airways. Formula E is innovative, bold and smart in its approach, concepts mirrored at Qatar Airways through our young and modern fleet, which is widely regarded as one of the most energy efficient in the sky.”
The third edition of the race in Paris, set against the striking backdrop of the L’Esplanade des Invalides, offered racing drivers and visitors an exceptional day of exhilarating competition and impressive sporting skills.
France is an important market commercially for Qatar Airways, which operates three daily services to Paris. The airline has served the French capital since 2000, when it first launched flights to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport. In July 2017, Qatar Airways launched direct flights to Nice, its second French gateway.
Qatar Airways, known for its commitment to innovation, proudly flies one of the youngest fleets in the skies featuring the world’s most technologically-advanced aircraft. In February, the airline was the global launch customer for the A350-1000, the latest member of Airbus’s wide-body aircraft portfolio. The A350-1000 offers cutting-edge light-weight carbon composite design, as well as incredibly fuel-efficient Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, bringing major advantages in fuel and cost efficiency.
The ABB FIA Formula E Championship is the electric street racing series and the world’s first fully-electric international single-seater category in motorsport. Formula E brings electrifying wheel-to-wheel action to some of the world’s leading cities, racing against the backdrop of iconic skylines such as New York, Hong Kong, Paris and Rome. The championship represents a vision for the future of the motor industry, serving as a platform to showcase the latest innovations in electric vehicle technology and alternative energy solutions.
Qatar Airways is also the title sponsor of the upcoming New York City ePrix, to be held in Red Hook, Brooklyn on 14-15 July 2018. It is also the Official Airline Partner of the Berlin ePrix taking place on 19 May in the German capital.
Qatar Airways believes in the power of sport in bringing people together, and sponsors many top-level sporting events around the world, including leading German football team Bayern München AG and leading Italian football team AS Roma. Qatar Airways is also the Official Airline Partner of FIFA, which includes 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™, the FIFA Club World Cup™, the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™.
The airline is continuing its ambitious expansion plans, and will launch a host of exciting new destinations this year, including Langkawi, Malaysia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Bodrum and Antalya, Turkey; Mykonos, Greece and Málaga, Spain.
As well as being voted Skytrax ‘Airline of the Year’ in 2017 by travellers from around the world, Qatar’s national flag carrier also won a raft of other major awards at last year’s ceremony, including ‘Best Airline in the Middle East,’ ‘World’s Best Business Class’ and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge.’
