Qatar Airways is to serve Manchester with daily flights in the New Year marking a significant increase in capacity to Britain`s second largest city.

The airline currently operates four scheduled flights a week between Doha, capital of the State of Qatar, and Manchester. Capacity is being increased to a fifth weekly service from February 11, 2006, rising to a daily service at the beginning of the Summer 2006 season on March 26.

The additional Manchester services take to 28 the number of weekly flights between Qatar and the UK - twice daily to London Heathrow and daily to London Gatwick.

Qatar Airways will continue operating a wide body Airbus A330-200 on the route.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the additional Manchester services would provide passengers with greater choice of flights and a wider network of exciting destinations to connect to over Doha.
We are already enjoying excellent passenger loads to Manchester from the Middle East and our destinations in the Indian subcontinent, Far East and South Africa via Doha, said Al Baker.

All our UK routes covering Manchester, London Heathrow and London Gatwick are performing extremely well so it was only a matter of time that we step up capacity to meet the rising demand.

These additional flights to Manchester are good news for the traveling public and we look forward to other opportunities to expand capacity even further across the UK during 2006.

Qatar Airways currently operates scheduled flights from its Doha hub to 68 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Indian subcontinent and the Far East. Together with its code share partners, the airline serves more than 80 destinations worldwide.

Last month, Qatar Airways launched flights to Nairobi, followed on December 2 by new services to Madrid. Starting on December 15, Qatar Airways will begin scheduled flights to Berlin - its third gateway city in Germany.