Qatar Airways has responded to the continuous rise in passenger demand with an increase in the frequency of weekly flights to ten of its most popular destinations throughout the Middle East and Europe.

The airline, which currently flies to 146 destinations around the globe, will implement the frequency increases over the next few months for a mix of business and leisure destinations.

Commencing May 16th, 2015, the airline will permanently increase weekly frequencies to seven destinations within its network.

These include Ta’if, Saudi Arabia; Basra, Iraq; Najaf, Iraq; Gassim, Saudi Arabia; Ankara, Turkey; Zagreb, Croatia; and Athens, Greece.

The airline will also increase the weekly frequency of flights to an additional three destinations during the peak summer period, to meet the increase in demand over the holiday season: Alexandria, Egypt; Salalah, Oman and Larnaca, Cyprus.

These additional flights will be seasonal only and the routes will revert back to their regular schedules from September 15th, October 4th and October 24th respectively.

The permanent frequency increases will see Ta’if, Zagreb and Ankara begin daily flight services commencing May 16th, July 1st and July 3rd respectively.

Meanwhile, the service to two Iraqi destinations will double from four to eight flights per week with Basra beginning on May 16th and Najaf on June 2nd, while ten flights per week will be offered to Gassim as of July 17th.

The most significant increase in frequency is the launch of an additional daily service on June 1st to Athens, bringing the number of weekly flights to the popular holiday destination up from 14 to 21 per week.

To help meet the demand of summer holiday travel, Qatar Airways will increase the number of flights per week to another three destinations.

Service to Alexandria will increase to 14 flights a week from June 1st to September 15th; flights to Larnaca will increase to a daily service from June 3rd to October 24th; and flights to Salalah will increase to 13 flights per week from July 13th to October 4th.

Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker, said: “Qatar Airways is committed to developing access to a number of destinations within our network which are popular with both our business and leisure travellers.

“Our most current frequency increases in the Middle East and Europe will provide our passengers with more flexibility and choice when it comes to planning their travel for both themselves and their families.

“We are pleased that so many travellers choose to fly with Qatar Airways, which is why we continue to expand the range of our five-star service and products.”