Qatar Airways has taken another key step to expand operations in Eastern Europe by increasing capacity on its recently-introduced Doha – Budapest route to daily non-stop scheduled services.

Effective September 14, the route will be upgraded with three additional flights from the current four-flights-a-week. And the service, currently operating via Bucharest, will be de-linked from the Romanian capital.

The latest move is part of an expansion in Eastern Europe where the Doha-based airline recently announced it is boosting online operations by launching four weekly flights to Bulgaria’s capital city of Sofia, also from September 14. The Sofia route will be operated via Bucharest.

Qatar Airways began flights to Hungary’s capital city of Budapest in January, and the exceptional response from the travelling public has prompted the decision to upgrade the route within months of the launch.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “We have seen very strong inbound and outbound demand for our Hungarian service since our launch just over two months ago. Forecasts look extremely positive, so we couldn’t really hold back but to increase capacity pending aircraft availability to daily non-stop from September offering more choice and greater convenience to our valued customers.”

He added that the Budapest route had created new connections between the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific for passenger traffic in and out of Hungary via the airline’s Doha hub.

Qatar Airways’ direct flights to and from Budapest are seen as highly convenient, avoiding the need for travellers to backtrack via congested European airport hubs to reach many international destinations across the carrier’s global network.

Qatar Airways is the only Gulf-based airline flying to Budapest, operating an Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy.

Regardless of class of travel, all passengers can experience the airline’s award-winning Oryx inflight-entertainment system, featuring seat-back touch screen TVs with over 700 programmes on-demand offering the latest movies, music and video games.

Europe has been the focus of Qatar Airways’ recent expansion. Since January 2011, the airline has added not just Budapest and Bucharest to its international route portfolio, but also Brussels and Stuttgart.

On June 15, Venice will become the carrier’s third Italian gateway and besides Sofia, Qatar Airways will also spread its wings to Norway’s capital city of Oslo on October 5. In addition, the airline will commence flights to the Iranian city of Shiraz on June 5, to Montreal in Canada on June 29 and Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, on July 27.

On April 6, Qatar Airways will reach an historic milestone – its 100th destination launch with the start of flights to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. To celebrate this outstanding event, Qatar Airways is gearing up for the biggest promotion in the airline’s history.

For 48 hours starting April 6, Qatar Airways is offering a ‘two for the price of one’ promotion on tickets to many destinations booked online at www.qatarairways.com

Until April 16, customers can also sign up for the promotion on qatarairways.com/100 for a chance to win free tickets to over 100 destinations. The airline has 100 pairs of Economy Class tickets to give away to lucky passengers.

In addition, the airline’s frequent flyer loyalty programme Privilege Club is offering members bonus Qmiles and a special discount on award tickets redeemed at qmiles.com. For Qatar Airways’ QNB co-branded credit card holders, bonus Qmiles are on offer. Further details on these offers are available at qatarairways.com/100

Qatar Airways’ Doha hub feeds passenger and cargo traffic across the world, offering convenient connections to Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America. By 2013, Qatar Airways plans to serve more than 120 key business and leisure destinations worldwide with a modern fleet of over 120 aircraft. Today, the airline’s fleet stands at 97 aircraft flying to 99 diverse cities worldwide.