Qatar Airways has sought more traffic routes and seats from India to serve two-tier cities, a top airline official has said.

Akbar-Al-Baker, the Chief Executive Officer told the PTI that Qatar Airways has exhausted all the traffic routes allotted by the Government of India.

He was in New York on the sidelines of “Educate a child”, a global education program sponsored by the airline and Jazz@ Lincoln Center, New York.

“We hope Indian Civil Aviation authorities will give additional access to other Gulf carriers in India and if that happens we would like to operate more flights.

We would like to operate more flights out of India to cater to the demands of global traffic,” Al-Baker said

He said India is a country with 1.3 billion people and has the highest number of affluent and educated middle class. It has economic prosperity and large number of people travels overseas.

“We would love to serve more Indians in their travel needs. I am willing to take any number of seats offered to Qatar Airways. Sky is the limit,” he said.

India’s annual airline passengers, both domestic and international, number only 160 million.

The Center for Aviation predicts that number will nearly triple to 450 million by 2020.

Answering questions on Ethihad Airways picking up 24 percent stake of Jet Airways for $ 379 million, the first foreign investment in an Indian airline since India eased restrictions on aviation deals, Al-Baker said Qatar Airways has no such plans to enter into any arrangement the moment in India and is watching the market.

“We are only requesting the Government of India to give us additional flying rights taking into consideration the growing air traffic and have no other plans in that country.”

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