Qatar Airways plans to add 15 destinations by 2008

Chennai, Jun 8 (UNI) Qatar Airways has chalked out an ambitious expansion plan to increase services to 90 destinations by 2008.

Informing this to newspersons here today, Qatar Airways General Manager (Cargo-worldwide) John Batten said ''as part of our expansion plan, we will be adding new destinations, including Colombo, Tunis, Algiers, Istanbul and Milan during this year.'' ''Apart from the new destinations we will also be adding 12 more new Airbus to our fleet by the end of this year,'' he added.

Stating that Qatar Airways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus to purchase 80 A350 aircraft, he said the agreement was signed in Paris last month by Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker and Airbus President Louis Gallois in the presence of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Qatar Airways would also fly four-times-a-week to Newark Liberty International Airport from June 26, he said adding the flights would operate via the new destination Geneva.

On Indian operation, Mr Batten said ''we have set a business target of 84 million dollars in India this year, which is about 23 per cent more than last year's target.'' Replying to a question, he said the proposed cargo operations to Thiruvananthapuram would start by August this year.

According to the statistics given by the officials, Qatar Airways was handling a volume of about 15-20 tonnage of cargo every day in Delhi and Mumbai, while in Chennai it was around 2,20,000 kg per week.

UNI