Qatar Airways to Fly Direct into Adelaide with Airbus A350-900

Qatar Airways will begin making daily flights to and from Adelaide, with the South Australian Government saying it will boost jobs and the economy.

The airline announced services between Adelaide and Qatar would begin in May next year with an Airbus A350-900 flying the route, the first to be flown in Australia.

They will arrive about 4:25 p.m. and depart about 9:00 p.m.

South Australian Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said the State Government had agreed to contribute to a "joint marketing exercise" with Qatar, but that the flights would lead to an increase in the visitor economy.

"We estimate it'll bring AU$41 million [and] an extra 228 jobs to South Australia at a time when our economy is diversifying," he said.

Mr Bignell said the flights will also benefit South Australians, who will now have another way of travelling to the Middle East, Europe and America.

"It reaches 140 destinations around the world, so what it'll do is it'll allow passengers to come from Adelaide from the Middle East from the east coast of the U.S. and from destinations right across Europe and, importantly, we'll also be able to fill the cargo of these planes with our premium food produce from here," he said.

Mr Bignell said the State Government had not directly paid Qatar Airways to bring the flights to Adelaide, but would not discuss details of the deal.

"That's commercial in confidence because we are up against other states, but we do deals with all sorts of airlines and just as we have a deal with Qatar," he said.

"We also have long standing deals with Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines so we don't go around telling people the deals that we've done with their competitors."