Qatar Airways, Qatar’s national carrier will begin direct daily flights from Doha to Houston from December, said a report.

With this, Houston becomes the third US destination and the 84th worldwide destination for the carrier.

’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,’ said Ali M. Al Rais, executive vice-president - commercial, as quoted in Gulf News.

The airline hopes to raise its fleet from the current 62 to 110 by 2013, he added.

Al Rais also said that the airline is also affected by the high oil prices since it buys fuel at market rates.