JEDDAH: Qatar Airways is closely studying the trends in the travel industry and will incorporate them as it suits it, a senior management executive of the airline has said.
One of the emerging trends is the way First Class air passengers are either going in for time-share arrangement in hiring aircraft or owning their own for their travel purposes. Another trend is the rapid progress the aviation industry is making in taking the paperless ticketing, which currently exists in the form of e-ticketing, to a new level.
With regards to the mobile technology and e-ticketing, the airline has already implemented both. It issues e-tickets and passengers can choose, via the Internet, to select their seat and receive their boarding pass on their mobile sets or allow them to print off at home or office. “Qatar Airways is very much at the forefront of using this cutting edge technology,” Ali M. Al-Rais, Qatar Airways’ Dubai-based senior vice president for commercial operations, told Arab News in an interview on Wednesday at a reception hosted by Ahmed Alidrissi, area manager of the airline for the Western Province, at the Westin Jeddah.
He added that the carrier has maintained First Class on the routes this premium cabin already exists, whether the Middle East or long haul routes. “What Qatar Airways is increasingly doing is introducing 180-degree flat beds in Business Class, which is far superior than First Class cabins of our competitors regionally and globally,” Al-Rais said.
He emphasized that the worldwide economic downturn had not impacted the Gulf region and so the slowdown had not affected Qatar Airways like some of the other regional airlines. “On the contrary, the aviation industry in the Gulf has grown by 13 percent in the past April-March calendar year and capacity of the airlines are up by 15 percent,” he added.
Qatar Airways has drawn up ambitious plans to further promote its ‘five-star’ status by adding new aircraft and destinations in the coming years. “We have a young and modern fleet of 70 aircraft and have on order more than 200 other aircraft. We have also ordered five Airbus A380 aircraft, which will join the airline in 2012,” he added. The A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus.
The Qatari national carrier, which finds the Indian market potentially attractive, is adding two more destinations to raise their number to 11. Amritsar in northern Punjab state will be added from Oct. 6 and Goa, a Western port city known for its exotic beaches, from Oct. 25. Elsewhere, the airline will launch its Melbourne route on Dec. 6 and Sydney in the beginning of 2010. The addition of Amritsar, Goa and Melbourne will take the airline’s route network to 85 destinations worldwide.
“India is a good and expanding market for us. Qatar and India have excellent relations and are bilaterally active in various sectors including education, energy and trade,” Al-Rais said.
It has been a rapid march for the airline within a span of 12 years. It started with its first flight from Doha to Sharjah in 1997 and immediately started operating 12 flights in the region. “In a short span of time, we became an airline of choice in the region, and being a global airline now we have succeeded in becoming a global airline of choice,” he added.
Asked whether there were plans to launch a low cost carrier, Al-Rais said: “Our CEO Akbar Al-Bakr has already made it clear that the airline will consider launching an LCC only if our market share is affected.”
