QATAR Airways, recently named Airline of the Year 2011, and Brazil´s Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (Gol), have signed a new code share agreement to connect travellers from Doha to 46 cities across Brazil through Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport. With this new agreement, Qatar Airways’ customers are able to purchase a single itinerary combining flights on both carriers’ global networks, affording them the ease of one-stop ticketing and through baggage check-in. Qatar Airways currently operates daily non-stop flights between its Doha hub and Brazil’s largest city of Sao Paulo, using its flagship Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft. Gol has the most extensive route network in Brazil of any airline, with more than 900 daily departures to dozens of key Brazilian cities including Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Curitiba, Foz da Iguaçú, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis and Londrina. Qatar Airways also recently announced plans to extend its presence in China with the launch of flights to a fifth gateway, the western city of Chongqing, from November 28. Operating three-times-a-week, the non-stop service from the airline’s hub in Doha will take the carrier’s capacity to China up to 28 flights a week. The airline has also launched daily non-stop scheduled services from Doha to Kolkata as well as twice-weekly freighter services to Kolkata, one of six Indian destinations where Qatar Airways already offers dedicated cargo flights. The aggressive 2011 expansion programme has so far seen the launch of 10 new routes – Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Brussels (Belgium), Stuttgart (Germany), Aleppo (Syria), Shiraz (Iran), Venice (Italy), Montreal (Canada), Madinah (Saudi Arabia) and, now, Kolkata. Over the next few months, Qatar Airways will begin flights to the following destinations, further extending its global reach. Sofia (Bulgaria) on September 14; Oslo (Norway) on October 5; Entebbe (Uganda) on November 2 and Baku (Azerbaijan) and Tbilisi (Georgia) on November 30.