Qatar Airways reveals expansion plans at ITB Berlin

Qatar Airways has confirmed three cities will join its rapidly growing global network during the second half of 2011, part of a continued expansion strategy focused on new routes and capacity increases.India, Norway and Bulgaria have been earmarked for new route development as the airline spelled out its ongoing commitment to international growth, targeting both popular and underserved markets in Europe, Middle East, North America and Asia, from its Doha hub.Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker unveiled the latest expansion details at a press conference on the opening day of ITB Berlin – the world’s largest travel show taking place in the German capital.Daily flights to the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, will be launched on 27 July taking Qatar Airways’ capacity in India to 95 services a week spread across 12 cities.In Europe, where much of Qatar Airways’ recent expansion has been the focus, the airline is to launch four-flights-a-week to the Bulgarian capital Sofia from 14 September. In January, the carrier began services to the Romanian capital Bucharest, Hungarian capital Budapest and Belgium’s capital city of Brussels.Beginning 5 October, Qatar Airways will commence a five-flights-a-week service to Norway’s capital city of Oslo. The airline already operates scheduled services to the Swedish capital Stockholm and Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen.Together with a raft of capacity increases that see the Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manchester and Dar Es Salaam routes go double daily, Geneva, Seychelles and Copenhagen will be upgraded to daily operations.This week, Qatar Airways embarked on the latest phase of its 2011 expansion drive launching three-flights-a-week to Stuttgart – its fourth German gateway and 99th international destination. Europe now accounts for 25 destinations in the carrier’s global network.With frequency on the Munich route increasing from daily to 11 flights a week and the Frankfurt route upgraded from 10 to 13 flights each week, beginning 27 March, Qatar Airways faces its biggest ever capacity rise in Germany in a short timeframe – from 24 to 34 flights a week. The Doha – Berlin route remains a daily operation.April 6 also marks a key moment for Qatar Airways with the launch of non-stop flights from Doha to the historic Syrian city of Aleppo – the airline’s milestone 100th destination. With three recently-announced routes to start in June alone – Iranian city of Shiraz (5 June), Italy’s Adriatic coastline city of Venice (15 June) and Montreal (29 June) being its first move into Canada, Qatar Airways is preparing for a busy summer ahead.