Regent Airways, the country's one of the top private carriers, has begun flights from Dhaka to Doha, the capital of Qatar.

The inaugural flight, a 167-seat Boeing 737-800, departed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 10:45pm on Friday and reached Hamad International Airport in Doha around 1:45am local time the next day.

The flight, which has eight business class and 159 economy class seats, was greeted with water cannon salutes at the airport, said the private carrier in a statement.

Ashud Ahmed, Bangladesh's ambassador to Qatar, received the passengers.

Initially, Regent Airways would operate flights on the new route four days a week.

Regent Airways Chairman Yasin Ali inaugurated the new route at the VIP lounge of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Regent Airways Chief Executive Officer M Fazle Akbar, Adviser Ashish Roy Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Director Salman Habib, and Chief Commercial Officer Akhtar U Ahmed were also present.  Doha is Regent Airway's second destination in the Middle East. The carrier started its journey to the region with flights to Muscat, the capital of Oman, in April last year.

Speaking on the occasion, Yasin Ali said with the introduction of the route, Regent has reached another milestone in its efforts to achieve the goal of becoming a trusted travel partner of Bangladeshi expatriates in the Middle East.

Fazle Akbar said flights on the Doha route have been introduced to cash in on the opportunities of expanding job market for Bangladeshis in Qatar ahead of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Regent will also fly on Chittagong-Doha-Chittagong route from the first week of next month.

Including all taxes, the lowest fares on the Dhaka-Doha route are Tk 23, 858 (one way) and Tk 40,596 (return).

Regent operates international flights on Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, Kolkata, Kathmandu and Muscat routes and domestic flights on Chittagong and Cox's Bazar routes.

Flight operation to Saudi Arabia's Dammam will start next month, according to the statement.