Manama: Qatar Airways has announced plans to launch a third daily flight to Bangkok on November 1, the airline said.
The new Bangkok service will continue Vietnam, with four of the flights heading onwards to the capital Hanoi and three onto Ho Chi Minh City.
Beginning on October 12, Qatar Airways will introduce six-flights-a-week to Phuket via Kuala Lumpur.
With the Bangkok flights, the airline's Thai operations will increase from 21 to 27 flights a week across two destinations.
The airline's plan to introduce Phuket flights has received a positive response from businesses across the island, eager to capitalise on a potential increase in the number of tourists.
With the new routes, which are part of its Asian expansion plan, Qatar Airways has already experienced a surge in bookings from holidaymakers, particularly from its European markets. So far it has added three new destinations to its network in 2010 and increased capacity and frequency across the entire region.
"Our third daily flight to Bangkok will create further connectivity across our network into Thailand and also allows us to improve our services to Vietnam, where we already fly to Ho Chi Minh City and look forward to adding Hanoi to our schedules,” Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, said.
"With Phuket and Hanoi coming online around the same time, Qatar Airways will soon operate to two destinations each in Vietnam and Thailand and we are thrilled to be able to offer the travelling public these exciting destinations and, with it, offer more choice.”
