Qatar Airways to start daily Doha-Bangalore flight

Qatar Airways has said it will commence daily nonstop flights between Doha and Bangalore, its newest Indian destination, from February 22. The Doha –Bangalore route will be operated by Airbus A320, the airline said in a statement. With the addition of this new destination, Qatar Airways ‘operations in India will increase to 71 flights a week spread across 11 cities. These include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhicode, Goa and Amritsar. “Having recently launched flights to Goa and Amritsar our new Bangalore flights will provide even more choice for holidaymakers to India and also provide a strategic air link for IT companies in and around Bangalore with rest of the world,” the Qatar Airways chief executive officer, Mr. Akbar Albaker, said. The airline currently operates a fleet of 76 aircraft to 85 business and leisure destinations across Europe , West Asia, Africa, South Asia, the Far East, North America and Australasia with plans to reach 120 cities worldwide by 2013.

Air travel by Spicejet means discomfort

The air-conditioning system failed in a Spicejet flight from Goa to Ahmadabad. One of the passengers fainted from suffocation and the plane had to be diverted to Mumbai otherwise the incident could have been fatal. It finally arrived at the destination after a delay of three hours. This is the pathetic state of cheap airlines in India.

On Sunday, passengers of the same Spicejet were left stranded in Hyderabad – they were to go to Mumbai from Vizag but stopped midway at Hyderabad. Apparently, the delay at Hyderabad was due to some technical problem.

Air travel has taken the fancy of the common man after the concept of cheap air travel took off. Airlines kept sprouting up and vanishing – they did away with frills like in-flight refreshments. If anyone wanted a cup of tea or coffee he had to pay for it. Some airlines tried to squeeze in an extra seat in the available space and eliminate the additional toilet by adding more seats. The passenger ultimately has to face uncomfortable journeys.