KATHMANDU: Qatar Airways continued its award-winning streak as the five-star ranked carrier was named the world’s leading airline in Business Class for the second year running. The airline, which recently began flights to Amritsar and Goa in India, continues its rapid expansion next month with the launch of scheduled services to Melbourne — the carrier’s first point in Australia, from December 6 last. Initially, a tri-weekly service, Melbourne operations will move to daily in January with plans to launch flights to Sydney. Qatar Airways operates a young and modern fleet of 71 aircraft serving 84 diverse business and leisure cities across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, the Far East and North America. It currently has outstanding orders for more than 220 aircraft worth over $40 billion. Almost 1,000 decision makers from the global travel and tourism industry gathered for the 16th World Travel Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London. Qatar Airways once again beat stiff competition to win the title as decided by thousands of travel professionals from over 180,000 travel agencies, transport companies and tourism organisations in over 160 countries worldwide. Hailed as the world’s largest and most important international awards for the travel industry, the World Travel Awards aims to encourage excellence, and high standards.