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Qatar Airways has formally announced the full details of the launch of its Bangalore Doha service.
From February 22, QR will commence the service using an Airbus A320 aircraft in a two class configuration — 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy.
With the Ministry of Civil Aviation under pressure for allowing Gulf carriers, most notably Emirates, to rapidly expand across India, QR was unable to obtain additional capacity under its bilateral agreement. Bangalore Aviation has learnt that the airline cut back on capacity to other Indian destinations and transferred it to commence service to Bangalore. After five months of service, depending on permissions, performance, and aircraft availability, the airline may consider an upgrade to a wide body service.
The schedule will offer excellent flight connections from Europe, United States, Africa and the Middle East, but will miss out on offering a connection to Bangalore’s sister city — San Francisco, which it will connect through code share flights operated by partner carrier United Airlines. The schedule will also compete head-on with fellow Gulf carrier Emirates which has one of its three daily flights around the same time.
QR226 will depart Doha at 2100 hrs, arrive Bangalore at 0335 hrs the next morning
QR227 will depart Bangalore at 0435 hrs, arrive Doha at 0640 hrs
Qatar Airways is banking on its award winning economy class and will initially focus on the value concious VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic.
To celebrate the new route, Qatar Airways is introducing launch fares from key international markets to Bangalore. In addition, depending on the country of origin, members of Qatar Airways Privilege Club will earn up to 28,000 bonus Qmiles when they fly the new route. For more details on the offer, visit the Qmiles website.
With the addition of Bengaluru, Qatar Airways’ Indian capacity will rise to 71 flights a week spread across 11 cities. These include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Cochin, Kozhikode, and the recently introduced Goa and Amritsar.
