Qatar Airways plans Nagpur, Ahmedabad flights

Dubai , July 25, 2007

Qatar Airways will fly to Nagpur and Ahmedabad in India by the end of 2007.

The new daily service to Nagpur, at the geographical centre of India, and Ahmedabad, in the north eastern state of Gujarat, will mark the seventh and eighth Indian destinations for Qatar Airways, according to CEO Akbar Al Baker.

With the two flights, Qatar will have launched an impressive 11 new routes in 2007 alone, said a report in the Gulf News.

Beginning with Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in January, Qatar Airways followed up with new service to Lagos, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City, Chennai, Geneva, New York, Washington DC and in November, Stockholm.

Its current network now totals 78 destinations worldwide.

Qatar is just one of several airlines which have deepened their network into the red hot aviation market on the subcontinent, which Indian authorities have gradually opened up in recent years.

Earlier this year, Etihad Airways marked India as its top focus, and announced plans for additional frequencies to busy routes such as Delhi and Mumbai.

It also added new routes to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram in June, and said it also planned soon to begin flying to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

'Currently Etihad flies to four Indian destinations and ideally we would like to double this in the next few years in order to satisfy the huge demand from Indian customers across Etihad's flight network, which includes the UK, Canada and South Africa as well as the UAE,' Etihad CEO James Hogan is quoted to have said in the report.

On October 28, Emirates will operate a new route to Ahmedabad, marking its ninth gateway into India.

The route will be operated in two- and three-class configurations using the A330-200 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which the airline said were both popular choices for the airline's existing India network.

In 2006, the Dubai-based airline launched three new routes to India, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Tags: Qatar Airways | India | Nagpur | Ahmedabad |