Additional flights on India-Qatar route will start shortly: Government

The government on Wednesday said that additional flights on the India-Qatar route will start shortly to ease the movement of Indians staying in the Middle East country.

The development follows the imposition of airspace restrictions on flights to and from Qatar by several countries in the Middle East region.

According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the new flights will be operated by Air India Express and Jet Airways.

The decision to operate additional flights was taken after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday took up the issue with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.

"We'll operate addl. flights b/w Doha & Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin and Mumbai for our citizens not able to get tickets at Doha @SushmaSwaraj," Raju tweeted.

"All steps necessary for timely movement of our citizens from Doha will be ensured. I and @SushmaSwaraj ji are in touch on this issue."

Accordingly, Air India Express will operate the Trivandrum-Doha-Cochin-Trivandrum flight from June 25 to July 8, 2017.

Subsequently, Jet Airways will fly the Mumbai-Doha-Mumbai route from June 22.

Currently, three domestic airlines - Jet Airways, IndiGo and Air India Express operate flights from several destinations in India to Doha. Qatar Airways operates flights from Doha to Indian cities.

In early June, India-based airlines said that their operations to Doha have not been impacted by the imposition of airspace restrictions.