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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Qatar Airways (QA) will soon submit a formal application with Indian authorities for launching a new airline in the country, its Group Chief Executive has said.
Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the 12th ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly Conference and Exhibition in Doha, QA Group Chief Executive Akbar al Baker said the airline would submit the application soon after the internal processes required for this within the company.
"We need to get approval from our board and the chairman in order to submit an application to Indian authorities. All the formalities are expected to be complete soon," Baker said.
QA is likely to order 100 new jetliners before 2017-end to enter India with a new airline.
Baker, however, said that QA would not proceed with its plan to launch a domestic airline in Saudi Arabia.
Baker said that QA was in the process of launching massive expansion of its cargo operations.
"We are going to expand our cargo division in a big way. There is big requirement for the correct capacity freighters and this is enabling QA to grow," he said.
"We are now the third largest air cargo carrier in the world. We grew very rapidly to the third position. What Qatar Airways does, it does robustly to achieve its targets," he said.
The expansion could more than double the existing cargo capacity of QA, he said, adding that the expansion would involve the building of a second cargo terminal in Doha.
He said the future plans include building further capacity for cargo at Hamad International Airport.
