Qatar Airways Praises Indian Authorities

Qatar Airways has praised local authorities in India for helping it strengthen air links between the State of Qatar and cities across India with two new routes launched over the past few weeks.

Qatar Airways’ Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said India remained, and will continue to be, a key market for Qatar Airways as part of the airline’s long-term commitment to one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Speaking in the northern Indian city of Jalandhar on Monday to celebrate the recent launch of flights to nearby Amritsar, Al Baker said India was the largest single market served by the airline.

Qatar Airways’ maiden flight to the northern Indian state of Punjab landed in the holy city of Amritsar on October 12. Two weeks later, the airline launched scheduled flights to Goa, heralding the arrival of Qatar Airways as the only full-service scheduled global carrier to both destinations.

With Amritsar and Goa both served four-times-a-week from the airline’s Doha hub, Qatar Airways has increased capacity to India to 64 flights a week spread across 10 cities. These include daily non-stop flights between Doha and Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum, Cochin and Kozhikode.

Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of 71 aircraft to 84 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Far East and North America.

“With 10 cities now served across India, Qatar Airways has built up a formidable network in this wonderful country,” said Al Baker, addressing media at a packed press conference in Jalandhar. “Our new Amritsar flights will greatly help commerce and industry in the city and the neighbouring business capitals of Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh for the export of textiles, sports goods and food, manufactured and produced in Punjab, to the Middle East and beyond.”

Home to the Golden Temple – the holy place of worship for Sikhs – Al Baker explained that the Amritsar route would also cater for the well travelled Punjabi community worldwide.

He said, “Punjabis have firmly established their home and work in cities across the world, yet have had very limited air access to Punjab for many years with the main option being to fly into Delhi and travel by road or train for the long journey to this part of north India.”

The airline is operating the Amritsar route four-times-a-week non-stop from Qatar’s capital city using a two-class Airbus A320, with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in Economy Class.

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