DOHA, Qatar, 22 January 2007 — A mother from the Philippines joined the elite club of Filipino millionaires after receiving Qatar Duty Free’s first ever $1 million raffle draw prize over the weekend, the Qatari agency said yesterday.
Otessa Carbonell Schiapparelli, a mother of an 11-year-old girl and a resident of the southwestern Philippine province of Palawan, was declared the lucky winner of the draw last month but she flew to the Qatari capital only last week to claim her check.
Schiapparelli was ecstatic as she received the check from Krishna Kumari, Qatar Duty Free deputy general manager, in a special ceremony.
She was quoted in the statement as saying she bought her winning ticket before boarding Qatar Airways’ Flight QR644 from Doha to Manila last year.
It was the not clear whether Schiapparelli was working in Dubai or was just passing through from Europe.
Just before Christmas last month, she received a telephone call from Kumari after the draw at the Doha International Airport and could not believe what she heard. “I was in total shock, it was just amazing to receive such wonderful news...” she said after receiving the prize.
The $1 million prize is the of such amount offered by the Qatar Duty Free, a subsidiary of Qatar Airways. The US Dollar Millionaire raffle draw was launched last summer in place of the highly successful 1 million Qatari riyals ($280,000) raffle draw, which was launched three years ago.
Duty Free and Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the new millionaire raffle gives contestants an high winning chances since each draw is done after 5,000 tickets are sold.
Departing and transiting passengers at Doha International Airport can purchase raffle tickets.
Al Baker said the raffle draw has become a “huge success” because of the $1 million prize, which gives participants a big chance to become instant millionaires. “Congratulations go out to Otessa for being our very first dollar millionaire,” said Al Baker, who added that he hoped the money would give her great joy over the next few weeks, months and years to come, as well as financial security.
Thousands of Filipino passengers pass through Doha International Airport every week, including the passengers of Qatar Airways flights connecting Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia to Manila and Cebu in the Philippines.
Qatar Airways, one of the world’s fast expanding airlines, said in a statement that it expects to carry 8 million passengers during the current financial year that ends in March 2007.
The airline operates a modern fleet of 52 all-Airbus aircraft to 71 destinations worldwide from Doha, the latest route being to Tanzania’s financial and commercial capital of Dar es Salaam, launched on Jan. 9. It plans to expand its international network further this year, with the launch of non-stop scheduled flights between Doha and New York, Bali in Indonesia, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Lagos in Nigeria, Chennai and Ahmedabad in India, together with two points in Northern and Eastern Europe.
