Qatar Airways to Launch More Flights to India

Starting September 23, the Doha-based Qatar Airways, will launch twice-weekly flights to the central Indian city of Nagpur, located in the State of Maharashtra. Nagpur, with a population of over two million people, is known for its farming belt and orange-growing centre.

Qatar Airways will be one of the only full-service scheduled international airlines flying to Nagpur.

Almost three months later, beginning December 12, Qatar Airways will start daily operations between Doha and Ahmedabad in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The city is Gujarat’s largest and the state’s cultural and commercial capital. Ahmedabad established itself as the home of the booming textile industry, earning it the nickname, the ‘Manchester of the East’ and was at the forefront of the Indian independence movement.

Both routes will be operated with an Airbus A320 aircraft in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy.

Qatar Airways currently operates 42 flights a week to six cities across India – seven services a week to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Trivandrum and Hyderabad. The addition of Nagpur and Ahmedabad take the airline’s Indian capacity from 42 services a week to 51 across eight cities.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said India was 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.

Al Baker applauded the Indian government’s policy of opening up its aviation industry to more domestic and international competition which, he said, was good for the consumer. Bilateral relations between Qatar and India, he said, were strengthening and the additional routes only reinforced the commitment between both countries to step up their ties.

Bilateral trade between India and Qatar has an estimated value of just US$1 billion, the majority represented by the export of $690m worth of Qatari liquid natural gas (LNG) to India.

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