Qatar Airways to launch Nagpur, Ahmedabad services

15 August, 2007:

Qatar Airways has joined the list of airline majors who are expanding their India operations. The Doha-based carrier has said it would further expand to India this year with the launch of scheduled flights to Nagpur and Ahmedabad. The airline company sees India as a key part of the airline's growth strategy, reflected by the fact that it currently has the most number of destinations than any other country in the network.

With these additions, the airline's network of cities across the country goes up to eight, said a report. Qatar Air would launch, on September 23, 2007, its twice-weekly flights to Nagpur, in Maharashtra, and thereby would become the only full-service scheduled international airline flying to the Central Indian city. Besides this, on December 12, 2007, it will start daily operations between Doha and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The two routes are expected to be operated with an Airbus A320 aircraft in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class.

The Nagpur and Ahmedabad routes would add to the current 42 Qatar Air flights a week to six cities across the country. The airline operates seven services a week to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad. The addition of Nagpur and Ahmedabad takes the airline's Indian capacity from 42 services a week to 51 across eight cities. The airline expects Nagpur and Ahmedabad to provide excellent connections for Qatar Air’s passengers from the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US.

Qatar Airways’ expansion to India comes as a follow up to the Indian government's policy of opening up its aviation industry to more domestic and international competition.