The Hindu Business Line : Qatar Airways keen to fly to 2 more cities

QATAR Airways, the national airline of Qatar, is keen to start operating to at least two more destinations in India and plans to start a freighter service to Bangalore during the course of the year, the airlines Chief Executive Officer, Mr Akbar Al Baker, said here on Thursday.

At present, the airline is operating 51 weekly flights between Doha and four Indian cities including Mumbai, Thiruvanthapuram, Kochi and Hyderabad. The number of weekly flights will reduce to 19 from April this year. The airline is operating 32 additional flights to India under the limited open sky policy of the Government, which allows international airlines to operate either more flights or fly larger aircraft.

"India is an important destination for us. We would be satisfied if allowed to fly to two more airports in India. We also plan to start a freighter service to Bangalore during the year," Mr Baker said. However, the CEO refused to name the airports to which the airline would like to operate regular services.

The airline, which is to take delivery of the recently unveiled double-decker aircraft — Airbus A-380 — would use it to operate to airports in Europe.

"There are several airports in Europe such as Heathrow in London, Charles de-Gaulle in Paris and Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, where there are problems of slots. We will use the new aircraft to operate to such airports," Mr Baker said.

The CEO felt that the recently launched low-cost airlines were not a threat to the airline. "People in our region are affluent. They want a full service product," Mr Baker said.

The Gulf region already has a low-cost airline Air Arabia that is to shortly launch flights between Mumbai and Sharjah.

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