Qatar Airways plans to rebuild flight network in phased manner starting this month

Persian Gulf carrier Qatar Airways, which reportedly plans to lay off an unspecified number of employees in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, said it will rebuild its flight network in a phased manner starting this month.

As part of this plan, the airline is looking to resume flights to India by June, subject to regulatory approval, Qatar airways said in a release.

At present, the airline continues to operate flights to more than 30 destinations around the world.

By the end of May, the airline plans to grow its network back to over 50 destinations (subject to approvals), resuming services to cities such as Manila, Amman, and Nairobi while a further number of destinations are planned to be added by the end of June.

Qatar Airways will be operating flights on Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Mumbai, Calicut, Kolkata, Kochi, New Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai and Trivandrum routes by end of June, it said.

The gradual expansion will focus initially on strengthening connections between the airline's hub in Doha with the global hubs of its partner airlines around the world including London, Chicago, Dallas and Hong Kong.

It will also look at reopening many major business and leisure destinations such as Madrid and Mumbai, Qatar Airways said.

According to a report, Qatar Airways on Wednesday said it will lay off staff as the coronavirus pandemic has largely grounded the global aviation industry.

However, the Doha-based carrier offered no figures for the number of employees who will be laid off by it, as per the report.