Qatar Airways increases capacity to India

Qatar Airways has taken advantage of the Indian government’s decision to lift capacity restrictions during the peak winter travel period by increasing its number of flights to India by 50%.

The airline hiked the number of scheduled fights from its operational hub of Doha, capital of the State of Qatar, from 30 to 45 a week from December 1. The additional capacity is spread across five Indian cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Cochin and Trivandrum.

The increased capacity, which is a mixture of additional flights and bigger aircraft offering more seats, is effective until either 31 January 2006 or 25 March 2006 depending on the destination.

Revised schedules are:

- Mumbai increases from seven flights a week to double daily
- Delhi increases from seven flights a week to 10
- Hyderabad increases from four to seven flights a week
- Cochin increases from five to seven flights a week
- Trivandrum daily flights upgraded to larger aircraft

All flights are non-stop from Doha.

India’s commercial capital of Mumbai sees the additional daily flights operated with the 144-seat Airbus A320s. Two of the Airbus A321-operated flights featuring 177 seats on existing services have been upgraded to the larger A300 aircraft offering 250 seats, while one flight will be operated by the 281-seat A330s. The extra capacity to Mumbai is applicable until the end of the Winter season on 25 March 2006.

The capital Delhi is being served with three additional weekly flights operated by A320s until 31 January 2006. The services complement recently-introduced A330s seven-times-a-week on the route.

The additional frequencies to Hyderabad and Cochin in southern India are being operated until 31 January 2006 by a mixture of A320s and A321s.

And five of the daily Trivandrum flights have been upgraded from A321s to A300s. The extra capacity is effective until 25 March 2006.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker welcomed the Indian government’s decision to relax capacity restrictions on foreign airlines to the country.

“India is a strategically important market for Qatar Airways and we are delighted to be able to offer additional flights and introduce larger aircraft on our routes to meet demand during the peak travel period in the run up to Christmas, the New Year and well into 2006,” he said.

“For the third year running the Indian government has relaxed its policy on capacity restrictions during the winter months which is a much-welcomed sign as it shows the authorities are moving in the right direction towards a more open skies environment.”

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