New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) Ahead of the football world cup in Doha, Tata group-owned Air India on Thursday announced introduction of 20 new flights per week to Qatar from key Indian cities.

"The added capacity will cater to the surge in demand expected around the football extravaganza in Qatar scheduled in November and December 2022," the airline said in a statement.

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The flights, to be introduced from October 30, will connect Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai with Qatar's capital Doha during this period.

"Thirteen flights per week will operate from Mumbai, four from Hyderabad and three from Chennai," it said.

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These flights will be in addition to the existing daily flights to Doha from Delhi.

The additional connectivity to Qatar follows Air India's increase of 14 new flights on its domestic network last month.

These additional 14 flights included two new frequencies on each of the Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru and Mumbai-Chennai routes, as well as one new frequency on the Mumbai-Bengaluru route.

"The strengthening of network connectivity is being enabled as more aircraft return to service," it said.

Commenting on the introduction of new flights for Qatar, Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer, Air India, said, "Bringing in the football extravaganza in this part of the world, Air India aims to provide strong connectivity between India and Qatar."

"Football fans across Indian are excited to be in the stadiums in Qatar where the world's best football talent will be competing with each other. Our flight schedule has been planned to make the entire travel experience convenient and seamless," he said.

"Air India hopes to continue to provide world-class flying experience for landmark sporting events in the future as well."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)