Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY

Qatar Airways says it will add Las Vegas to its 2017-18 flight schedule, though details of the launch were vague.

The city would become the fast-growing Middle East carrier’s 11th destination in the United States and its first since launching nonstop service to Atlanta this past June.

The Las Vegas route was included as part of an eight-city expansion announced by Qatar Airways on Monday. The other new destinations were Canberra, Australia; Dublin, Ireland; Medan, Indonesia; Rio de Janeiro; Santiago, Chile; and the cities of Tabuk and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia.

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“With today’s network announcement, we will be able to connect more people to more places than any other Gulf airline, and we will ensure our passengers will delight in the journey," Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways' often-outspoken CEO, says in a statement. "At Qatar Airways, we are going places together with our passengers, and we look forward to welcoming these new destinations in 2017.”

Despite issuing a formal announcement, however, Qatar Airways did not specify start dates for the new routes. Similarly, a search of the carrier’s booking engine found no nonstop Las Vegas flights operated by Qatar Airways for sale though the end of the company’s booking window (currently Nov. 24, 2017).

A Qatar Airways representative has subsequently informed Today in the Sky that the airline plans to begin its service to Las Vegas in "early 2018."

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Should the route launch next year as announced, it would be Qatar Airway’s 11th destination in the USA. Its others are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Philadelphia and Washington Dulles.

Qatar Airways is one of the three big and fast-growing “Gulf carriers” of the Middle East. The others are Emirates and Etihad, each based in the United Arab Emirates. All three have been expanding at a breakneck pace during the past decade, both in the United States and across the globe.

Their expansion has prompted allegations from some U.S. rivals that the state-owned Gulf carriers are unfairly subsidized. All three of the Gulf airlines vehemently deny those claims. Other U.S. carriers – notably JetBlue and Alaska Airlines – have voiced support for the Gulf carriers.

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