Gulf airlines make inroads into hot Indian market

New Delhi, July 27: As fast-growing Gulf airlines make major inroads into India, Qatar Airways has announced it will fly to Nagpur and Ahmedabad by the year-end.

The new daily service to Nagpur and Ahmedabad will mark the seventh and eighth Indian destinations for Qatar Airways, according to its chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker.

With the two flights, the airline will launch 11 new routes this year alone. Its current network now totals 78 destinations worldwide.

Qatar is just one of several airlines which have deepened their network into the red-hot Indian aviation market which the government has gradually opened up in recent years.

Earlier this year, Etihad Airways marked India as its top focus and announced plans for additional frequencies to busy routes such as Delhi and Mumbai. It also added new routes to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram in June and said it plans to begin flying to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad soon.

Currently Etihad flies to four Indian destinations. ''Ideally we would like to double this in the next few years in order to satisfy the huge demand from Indian customers across Etihad's flight network which includes Britain, Canada and South Africa as well as the UAE,'' Etihad's CEO James Hogan said earlier this year.

On October 28, Emirates will operate a new route to Ahmedabad, marking its ninth gateway into India. The route will be operated in two and three-class configurations using the A330-200 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which the airline said are both popular choices for the airline's existing India network.

In 2006, the Dubai-based airline launched three new routes to India, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata and Bangalore.

UNI