Qatar Airways, the Middle East?s only five star carrier, recently announced plans to fly to Brazil and Argentina, spreading its award-winning service to the South American continent for the first time.

South America?s two largest cities ? Sao Paulo in Brazil and the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires ? will join the airline?s rapidly growing international network over the next few months.

Adding to the five new destinations already planned for 2010, the two South American cities will complete an exciting line-up of new routes for Qatar Airways direct from Doha.

Qatar Airways launched scheduled flights to the southern Indian city of Bengaluru (Bangalore) last month. It plans to serve Copenhagen from March 30; Ankara on April 5; Tokyo on April 26; and Barcelona on June 7 rounding up a busy year for the Doha-based airline. Launch dates for both Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires will be announced in due course.

In addition, Qatar Airways will phase in capacity increases through additional frequencies and deployment of larger aircraft on selected international routes from the beginning of the Northern Summer 2010 schedules on March 28.

These include Geneva, Stockholm, Colombo, Goa, Chennai, Amritsar, Kathmandu, Maldives, Seychelles, Luxor, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The airline currently flies daily from Johannesburg and four times a week from Cape Town onto its hub in Doha. From March 28 the larger Boeing 777 will be used on the South African route.

The airline?s state-of-the-art Boeing 777 aircraft ? of which there are currently 16 in the fleet ? featuring Business Class seats that convert into 180? fully-flat beds, will also be deployed on the new South American routes.

With seven new routes lined up during 2010, Qatar Airways will increase its global portfolio to 92 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, South Asia, North America and Australasia