Qatar Airways has launched its non-stop flight between Doha and Chiang Mai.

The new flight is operated with an Airbus A330-200, which has a belly capacity of approximately 12 tonnes.

The flight will be operated four times a week until May 2018 and will resume in October 2018 for the winter season.

“Today’s inaugural flight to historic Chiang Mai marks further growth in the already strong bonds between the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Thailand,” said Jassim bin Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti, the Qatari minister of transport and communications, who travelled on the inaugural flight. “I am very proud that our national flag carrier, Qatar Airways, now flies to four beautiful destinations in Thailand and will soon add its fifth with Pattaya joining their global network in January. The increase in business, tourism and trade between our two nations that these flights support cannot be underestimated and it gives me great pleasure to celebrate with the people of Chiang Mai on this occasion.”

Qatar Airways Cargo expects the new flight to help support exports of fresh fruits and vegetables from northern Thailand. The carrier already offers belly capacity on its five daily passenger flights to Bangkok, daily flight to Krabi and twice-daily flights to Phuket. With the introduction of the Chiang Mai route, the overall cargo capacity out of Thailand will increase to 800 tonnes every week.

The schedule for the new flight is as follows.