DOHA-BASED airline Qatar Airways has completely upgraded its premium products in an attempt to emulate its Middle Eastern rival Emirates and win awards.
The airline has finished equipping its leased European fleet of three Airbus A300s with new electronically operated first-class seats that convert into a flat bed.
The carrier has also introduced new business-class seating offering a 50in pitch with features that frequent travellers have grown accustomed to on other international airlines.
The airline said the improvements, backed by a new marketing campaign, are designed to help raise the profile of Qatar Airways.
However, its daily evening service from Heathrow to Doha cannot compete on capacity terms with Emirates’ thrice-daily flights from London to its busy hub in Dubai.
But Qatar chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker is determined to increase frequency and speed up transfers to a network of connecting flights from Doha to the rest of the Middle East and Asia to make the service more appealing to the UK market. Two years ago, Qatar switched its lower-frequency Gatwick-Doha flights operated by ageing aircraft to the daily Heathrow service operated by one of the youngest fleets in service. The move included staff cutbacks and scrapping five unprofitable routes to focus on its 19-point core network.
Al Baker, who was appointed three years ago to turn the carrier’s performance round, said he is developing realistic targets which includes an evaluation of new aircraft such as the more efficient A330 for the European market.
He added: “We have set ourselves very realistic targets to offer a quality product with frequency to match the needs of the business traveller.
“We recently launched a campaign that uses the slogan ‘non-stop hospitality’ to highlight our non-stop flights as well as the warm and friendly service of our staff. Two years ago we operated 66 flights a week on our network out of Doha with 25 of these being multi-stops. Now we have 99 frequencies with only four flights having more than one stop. We have to recognise that service is not the only thing that matters to business travellers. They also want speed, efficiency and good connections.”
n Qatar Airways has launched daily connections over Doha to the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu for this winter.