Qatar Airways' expansion rolls on with flights

Qatar Airways, the Gulf state’s flagship carrier, will launch flights between Doha and the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Wednesday, the government in Sofia has said. The state-backed airline will run the service four times a week with an interim stop in the Romanian capital Bucharest, the government in Sofia said in a statement to Bloomberg News Tuesday.Qatar Airways last month pushed the launch of flights to Azerbaijan and Georgia back to Feb 2012, citing “constraints on aircraft availability”. The airline, which was due to begin operations to the capital cities on Baku and Tbilisi on Nov 30, plans to serve 120 destinations worldwide by 2013, with a fleet of more than 120 aircraft. Qatar Airways is one of the largest buyers of new aircraft, with orders for 80 Airbus A350s, six Boeing 777-300ER and five Airbus SAS A380s, among others. The carrier is first in line in the Middle East to receive deliveries of the much-delayed 787 Dreamliner, Boeing Co said in August. The Doha carrier will add services to the Norwegian capital Oslo beginning October 5; Entebbe in Uganda from November 2 and Chongqing in China from November 28.