India is Qatar Airways' single largest market

Qatar Airways has spelled out ambitious plans to expand its presence across India with the launch of daily non-stop flights from its Doha hub to the southern Indian coastal city of Kozhikode from Monday, 16 June.

Qatar Airways currently operates 58 flights a week from Doha to nine cities in India, including daily scheduled services to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Trivandrum, Hyderabad and now Kozhikode. It also operates a twice-weekly service to Nagpur.

According to the airline's chief executive officer, Akbar al Baker, ''India today is by far the largest single market for Qatar Airways with a network of nine cities which represents more than 10% of our global network of 83 international routes. We are eyeing many more opportunities in this huge market and look forward to opening up further routes to give the travelling public, to and from India, more choice.''

According to al Baker, Qatar Airways will take delivery of its third Boeing 777 aircraft this summer, which will mark the beginning of an aggressive fleet expansion programme over the next few years, with an average of one aircraft joining the airline every month.

Deliveries will include the airline's first Boeing 777-200 Long Range version in November. The aircraft will make non-stop operations possible between Doha and any key international business and leisure destination.

Qatar Airways currently has outstanding orders for more than 200 aircraft, worth over $30 billion.

The airline currently operates a fleet of 62 Airbus and Boeing aircraft to 83 destinations worldwide, including the Far East and the Indian sub-continent.

Kozhikode is the airline's second route launch this year, following the launch of non-stop flights between Doha and the southern Chinese industrial city of Guangzhou launched in March.

It is set to launch scheduled services between Doha and Houston from 10 November.