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Qatar Airways has launched scheduled flights to the southern Indian city of
Bengaluru (Bangalore). Flight QR226 arrived in India’s IT capital – dubbed
India’s Silicon Valley – in the early hours of yesterday following its maiden
non-stop overnight journey from the airline’s hub of Doha.
Bengaluru, the state capital of Karnataka, becomes the first of several new
route launches being planned by Qatar Airways during 2010.
Scheduled flights are set to be introduced to Copenhagen on March 30; Ankara on
April 5; Tokyo on April 26; Barcelona on June 7 and Sydney at a date to be
confirmed, together with a raft of capacity increases on many other routes
worldwide.
The launch of daily flights to Bengaluru takes Qatar Airways’ Indian capacity
up to 71 services a week spread across 11 key points – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,
Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Kochi, Kozhikode, Goa and Amritsar.
Home to India’s largest IT software industry, Bengaluru also has some of the
country’s most important colleges and research institutions with numerous
public sector companies across the aerospace, telecommunications and defence
industries.
With excellent connections from Europe, Middle East, Africa and the US, the new
route is expected to be popular among expatriates returning to Bengaluru and
the international business community having strong commercial links with the
city.
Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar al-Baker said he was delighted that
Bengaluru “has finally joined our rapidly growing international network, which
further demonstrates our commitment to give the travelling public greater
choice.
“This new strategic air link fosters a stronger partnership between India and
Qatar and further provides excellent connectivity through our flights to rest
of the world via Doha.”
Bengaluru has been at the heart of India’s software industry for years,
enabling it to capitalise on establishing commercial and social ties with
cities around the world, including its US west coast counterpart, San Francisco.
With codeshare flights operated by partner carrier United Airlines, Qatar
Airways provides convenient connections to many cities across the US, including
San Francisco.
As part of its promotional efforts, members of Qatar Airways’ award-winning
Privilege Club frequent flyer programme can earn up to 28,000 bonus QMiles,
depending on the country of origin, when they fly on the new Bengaluru route.
Added al-Baker: “These are exciting times for Qatar Airways. With our first new
route of 2010 successfully launched, we look forward to further global
expansion to some exciting destinations over the next few weeks and months.”
On the Doha–Bengaluru route, Qatar Airways is operating an Airbus A320 in a
two-class configuration of 12 seats in business class and 132 in economy.
The Doha–Bengaluru daily flight schedules (all times local) are: QR226 departs
Doha International Airport at 9pm; arrives in Bengaluru at 3.35am next day;
QR227 leaves Bengaluru International Airport at 4.35am to arrive in Doha at
6.40am.
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