Qatar Airways has announced a massive expansion plan for its operations in Vietnam, saying it will add Hanoi to its network and make the Ho Chi Minh City route a daily service.

A Qatar Airways statement, seen in HCM City Wednesday, said from November 1 this year, Hanoi will become the airline’s second network point in the country, with four weekly flights to Doha operating via Bangkok.

The flights will be on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The carrier’s HCM City route will on the same day become a daily service with three extra flights a week heading to Doha, also via Bangkok, adding to the four non-stop direct flights in operation since March 2007.

This file photo shows a Qatar Airways flight attendant stand at the Qatar Airways pavilion in an international travel expo in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Tuong Thuy)

Therefore, the new daily service means four direct flights and three via Bangkok.

The expansion will boost Qatar Airways’ services to 11 flights a week from Vietnam to Doha and further open up the airline’s global network to traveling Vietnamese, with the airline offering onward connections from Doha to destinations throughout the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

The new Vietnam flights are part of a global expansion program that will see Qatar Airways add six new routes over a four month period from October 2010.

The announcement said daily flights from Doha to Thailand’s Phuket will start on October 11. The new flights will operate via Kuala Lumpur. Qatar Airways will also launch flights to Bucharest, Nice, Brussels and Budapest, bringing the airline’s route network to over 95 destinations by January 2011.

Qatar Airways senior vice president, Commercial East Asia and Southwest Pacific, Marwan Koleilat said that Vietnam was a key growth market for the airline.

“Qatar Airways is delighted to be expanding in Vietnam with the country forging ahead and experiencing rapid economic development,” he said in the announcement.

“The new route to Hanoi and the boosting of our Ho Chi Minh City flights to daily services demonstrate the confidence that Qatar Airways has in Vietnam.”

“We have a serious commitment to the Vietnamese people not only to bring tourists to Vietnam, who will contribute to the economy, but to also provide the traveling public access a growing global network and world class airline services.”

Qatar Airways says by 2013, it plans to serve 120 key business and leisure destinations worldwide with a modern fleet of 120 aircraft. At present the airline’s fleet stands at 84 aircraft, flying to 90 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and North America.