Qatar Airways will be increasing the number of daily flights between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Doha to five starting 22 February 2005.

The new flight, which leaves Doha at 23.45pm and returns at 8.00am, was introduced to accommodate the increased traffic generated by the Airline’s recent destination launches to London Gatwick, Beijing, Seychelles, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Yangon.

“Bahrain is a key market for Qatar Airways and we want the public to be able to take full advantage of the high levels of service we provide,” said Mohammed Ali, Bahrain Area Manager, Qatar Airways.

“The increase in the number of flights to Qatar will allow our customers to minimise transit times and increase their flight experience.”

The timings of the flight are aimed at capitalising on peak travelling times of the airline’s patrons and will also allow for two daily flights to the sub-continent.

“The morning flight will be excellent for business customers that are travelling to Doha for meetings and will improve the connections to Dubai, Maldives, Bombay, Trivandrum, Colombo, Kochi, Hyderabad and Kathmandu,” said Ali.

“The evening flight from Doha will improve connections for returning passengers from South Africa, Maldives, Colombo, Kathmandu and Hyderabad”.

This increased capacity is intended to better service local customers and provide greater connection opportunities over Doha to more than 50 Qatar Airways destinations worldwide.

“Qatar Airways is expanding at a phenomenal rate with the new routes opening up from Doha to different parts of the world,” said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker.

“We want to give our business and leisure travellers a diverse choice of destinations to fly to from Doha.”

He explained that the route expansion programme reinforced the carrier’s position as one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.

Passengers will be able to experience Qatar Airways’ Five Star service, one of only three airlines worldwide to have been recognised by Skytrax, the independent aviation monitoring agency, with the highest accolade for airline service.

Qatar Airways operates to 59 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Indian subcontinent and the Far East. By the end of 2005, Qatar Airways will serve at least 70 destinations, including North America and Australia.

Qatar Airways is one of the youngest airlines in the world with an all-Airbus fleet of 39 modern aircraft, which will double over the next few years following a $5.1 bn order for 34 additional Airbus jets.