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Following the recent open skies policy announced by the Indian government,
Qatar Airways is almost tripling the number of weekly non-stop flights between Doha,
the capital of the State of Qatar, and India.
From 19 flights a week spread across four Indian cities – Mumbai, Cochin, Trivandrum and Hyderabad – the airline is sharply
raising frequency to 51 services a week from November 1.
The increased capacity to each of the four Indian destinations served from Doha will be effective until 31 March 2005.
Flights to India’s commercial capital Mumbai are increasing from six services a week to 13; the southern Indian city of Cochin
sees capacity rise from three to 13 weekly flights; Trivandrum’s daily operation goes up to 13 flights a week; and the burgeoning
IT centre of Hyderabad sees the number of flights increase from three services a week to 12.
All flights are operated in two-class configured Airbus A300s and A320s.
For the second year running, the Indian government has relaxed its policy on capacity restrictions to foreign airlines by opening
up the skies for a five-month period over the busy holiday season.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker said: “We welcome the Indian government’s decision because capacity
has traditionally been restricted and this move is a step in the right direction to provide greater competition and to serve the
travelling public, potentially paving the way for an open skies policy year round.”
“We currently serve four cities in India, one of the world’s biggest travel markets. We are unable to satisfy the huge demand
because our Indian routes are so popular. If we had even more capacity, we would be able to serve the travelling public much
better.
“Our aim is to simply serve all international airports in India. This is a country with huge potential and we want to have a good
slice of the market.”
In addition, Qatar Airways operates cargo flights from Doha to Delhi three times a week and Chennai twice-weekly using an A300
freighter.
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