Qatar Airways to open flights from Goa, Amritsar

At a time when international carriers are pulling out flights from newly started routes, Doha-headquatered airline company Qatar Airways said today that the company will expand its operations in India connecting Goa and Amritsar to the middle east city.

The addition of two new destinations in India is part of the company's overall expansion plan, which also includes new routes to Europe and the launch of scheduled flights to Australia.

Qatar Airways currently operates 58 flights a week to nine cities across India – daily to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Kozhikode and twice-weekly to Nagpur.
 
"The expansion is part of the airline’s ongoing growth strategy – a long-term commitment to develop its route infrastructure as new aircraft join the fleet at an average delivery rate of one a month", stated a press note.
 
Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Airways said, "India has been, and remains, one of our most important destinations and we are pleased to be strengthening economic and cultural ties with one of the world’s fastest growing economies. With the growth of the Indian economy into a potential global powerhouse and Qatar's drive to spread its economic wings globally, increasing air links between the two countries is of paramount importance."

Despite a rapidly deteriorating environment for the aviation sector, Qatar Airways has decided to go ahead with the induction of one new aircraft in its fleet every month in the near future. The airline currently has on order more than 200 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth over $40 billion.  

With the opening of the New Doha International Airport scheduled for 2012, Qatar Airways plans to increase its global network to beyond 100 cities worldwide.