Qatar Airways Commences Delhi Operations

Neeti Chopra - New Delhi

Following the successful conclusion of bilateral aviation discussions between the governments of Qatar and India, Qatar Airways has expanded its services to India by launching flights to New Delhi seven times a week.

The Delhi route becomes Qatar Airways' fifth destination in India and marks the first stage of a capacity increase in selected routes to India. The airline has introduced 11 additional flights to five Indian destinations taking the total number of flights to 30. The airline earlier operated 19 scheduled flights a week between Doha and Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Trivandrum.

Ali Al Rais, senior manager - commercial (Arabian Peninsula, Iran, South Asia & Myanmar) who headed the delegation in Middle-East for the non-stop inaugural flight from Doha to Delhi, said, "The country is witnessing an aviation boom with airliners trying to grab a share of the market. Also, the capacity for seats in India is unable to meet the high demand, hence the increased flights. The Indian government has also been extremely pro-active in recent months in opening up the skies to more services and making the aviation environment to and from India more competitive. Delhi was on our radar screens for many years. Now we are looking at expanding our services to other cities as well."

The Delhi route is being operated with an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in business and 132 in economy class. This route will offer convenient connections over Doha to and from European and West Asian cities.

Besides the New Delhi flights, there are other flight capacity additions to India as well. The six Qatar Airways flights per week from Mumbai to Doha have been increased to seven. Kochi, currently served three times a week, has been boosted with two additional weekly departures and a fourth weekly flight has been added to the Hyderabad schedule.