Qatar Airways yesterday confirmed its plan to introduce a fifth daily non-stop flight between Doha and Bangkok from June 1.
The additional flight is in tandem with its expanding presence in Thailand and its newly-concluded accord with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to work together to boost the country's inbound tourism.
The increased frequency, along with its double-daily Phuket flights and the five-month-old Krabi operations (four flights a week), will take the number of weekly Qatar departures from Thailand to Doha to 53.
This will bring the airline's capacity between Thailand and the Middle East to rival Emirates, according to industry executives.
Emirates operates seven flights a day from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport to the carrier's main hub in Dubai.
Six flights are operated by the iconic Emirates Airbus 380 and the other by Boeing 777 widebody jets.
Qatar will deploy the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" jet, configured with 254 seats, for the new Doha-Bangkok flight, complementing three existing flights operated by Boeing 777-300ERs on the route and one daily service by A380 superjumbo.
The introduction of Qatar's fifth Doha-Bangkok daily service is ahead of its recently-announced foothold expansion in Thailand.
Qatar Airways has set its sight on a debut of the first Doha-Chiang Mai non-stop from Oct 31 with four flights a week on an Airbus 330 widebody jet.
Qatar group chief executive Akbar Al Baker, described the new Doha-Bangkok flight as a significant commitment of Qatar to the Thai market and testament to the strong year-round demand on this iconic Far East route.