Qatar Airways is to boost its Airbus A380 services to Bangkok in a move seen as matching Emirates' plan to upgrade its superjumbo flights to the capital.
It will introduce a second daily A380 flight from Doha to Bangkok by Sept 16 and a third by Oct 25, industry executives told the Bangkok Post.
The airline's Bangkok-Doha frequency, now at four flights a day, will remain unchanged, but the double-decker A380 will replace the smaller Boeing 777-300ER on two of the flights.
One of Qatar's daily flights is already served by the superjumbo.
Daily seating capacity on the route will be ramped up to 1,931 from 1,657.
Emirates this month announced the introduction of a fourth daily flight between Bangkok and Dubai using the A380 from Dec 1.
The move will boost the Dubai-based airline's daily seat capacity for the route from 2,693 to 2,948, the largest volume between the Persian Gulf and Thailand.
Emirates now operates two types of aeroplanes on its six daily Bangkok-Dubai flights, split evenly between A380s and B777-300ERs.
The number of A380 flights on the route will be ramped up to four on Dec 1, while the B777-300ER will be used for only two.
However, industry executives said Qatar's decision to ramp up A380 services on the Bangkok-Doha route was in line with its strategic planning and not directly following the footsteps of Emirates.
Qatar is due to take delivery of its sixth A380 in mid-September and will immediately deploy it on the Bangkok-Doha route.
The airline is focusing its growing A380 fleet on Bangkok, Paris and London due to their high traffic demand.
Qatar started flying the A380 from its base in Doha to Bangkok on Jan 5, less than four months after it took delivery of its first superjumbo.
The airline now operates five A380s, and its fleet is expected to increase to 10 by year-end.