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Abu Dhabi: Qatar's state-owned international carrier Qatar Airways plans to start daily flights to Houston from Doha in December, which will raise the airline's worldwide destinations to 84, a senior company executive said on Sunday.
"Currently, we fly to 83 destinations. These include Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE, New York and Washington DC in the US, nine cities in India and four cities in China," Ali M. Al Rais, executive vice-president - commercial, told Gulf News.
"Houston will become our third destination in the US."
Al Rais said Qatar Airways plans to increase the size of its fleet to 110 aircraft by 2013 from 62 at the moment.
He said the airline currently operates 48 flights a week from Abu Dhabi to Doha and vice versa, and it has 56 flights a week from Dubai to Doha and vice versa.
"If the demand justifies, we will increase the number of flights to our destinations in the UAE," said Al Rais.
However, he said that the airline doesn't have any immediate plans to add new destinations in the UAE.
Turning to high international crude oil prices which have resulted in the price of jet fuel almost doubling in a year, Al Rais said high fuel prices are impacting Qatar Airways' bottom line, just as they are for other airlines around the world.
"The fuel we buy isn't subsidised by the government. We are an independent company and we purchase our fuel at the prevailing market prices, so we are affected as well," said Al Rais.
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