Qatar Airways is set to expand its Indian network with a 20 percent increase in frequency covering the cities of Delhi, Cochin and Amritsar from this month.

Beginning 1 September 2010, the number of flights to the northern Indian city of Amritsar will rise from four- a-week to daily. The expansion comes less than a year since Qatar Airways launched flights to Amritsar.

The southern Indian city of Cochin, currently served daily, will get an additional four flights a week – two from 1 September and the other two from 5 November 2010.

The beginning of the Northern Winter flying programme on 31 October will see the highly popular Doha – Delhi route securing an additional daily flight taking capacity to the Indian capital up to 14 services a week.

With a total of 14 additional flights being phased in over a period of two months, Qatar Airways’ capacity to India will increase from 74 to 88 services each week. The Doha-based airline currently flies to 11 cities across India that cover Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Trivandrum, Kozhikode, Ahmedabad, Goa, Delhi, Amritsar, and Cochin.

With the new additional flights, each of the 11 Indian destinations will be served daily non-stop, except Delhi and Cochin, which will have a double daily service and 11 flights-a-week, respectively.

India is by far Qatar Airways’ single biggest market by the number of destinations served – and the country alone makes up over 10 percent of the airline’s international network.

During a four-month period from October 2010, the airline’s passenger route network will rise to almost 100 destinations. The additions of Phuket (12 October ), Hanoi (1 November), Nice (24 November), Bucharest (17 January 2011), Budapest (17 January 2011) and Brussels (31 January 2011) provide even more travel options for passengers.