Qatar Airways, one of the Mideast’s largest carriers known for on-board comfort and luxury, said Thursday its profits over the past fiscal year topped $1.5b, marking the highest ever earnings for the state-owned carrier as it prepares to see a record surge in travelers for the upcoming FIFA World Cup soccer games. Qatar Airways operates out of a gleaming new airport in the capital, Doha, on the eastern coastline of the Arabian Peninsula, where the World Cup will be held for the first time in the Middle East later this year. The airline says revenue reached $14.4b, up 78% compared to last year. It carried 18.5m passengers during the 2021-22 fiscal year, a more than 200% jump from the previous year. It’s a sharp reversal for the airline, which suffered a staggering net loss of $4.1b in the previous fiscal cycle due to the coronavirus pandemic and the grounding of its Airbus A380 and A330 wide-body jets. The airline’s fortunes also reflect a world in which many nations have rolled out successful vaccine campaigns, allowing travel to pick back up. Qatar Airways was buoyed during the pandemic’s hardest months with a $3b lifeline from the Qatari government that helped keep its operations afloat as it struggled with long-haul travel restrictions wrought on by the virus. Its main competitor, Emirates Airline, also received a multibillion-dollar payment by the Dubai government during the pandemic. The two airlines serve as key economic mainstays for their respective countries, which rely heavily on tourists and transit passengers.<br/>
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Qantas has apologised to passengers after a flight delay left hundreds stranded at Dallas airport for 24 hours with many left to sleep on hard flooring. The QF8 service from Dallas Fort Worth to Sydney on Wednesday was initially delayed due to an engineering issue, according to Qantas. The issue took longer than expected to resolve and, as a result, pushed the flight’s projected arrival time in Sydney into the curfew window, meaning Qantas had to delay the flight for a second time. Furious passengers have complained that after the flight was delayed, Qantas staff did not book accommodation for all of the roughly 300 passengers, and that they were left to book accommodation themselves. Shortly after 3.30pm Sydney time on Thursday, a Qantas spokesperson said the flight had taken off – about 23 hours after its scheduled departure. “We know that this is a difficult situation for our customers whose plans have been disrupted, and we apologise for the inconvenience,” he told the Guardian. “Our team at Dallas Fort Worth airport provided customers with assistance after the initial delay and are helping customers ahead of the delayed departure,” the spokesperson said.<br/>