Qatar Airways will move into its new hub at Doha’s Hamad International Airport next week despite work on the carrier’s first and business class lounges being unfinished.
A further postponement would be too expensive, according to Qatar Airways’ chief executive Akbar Al Baker, following an 18-month delay to the airport’s opening.
Al Baker confirmed: “The first and business class lounges are not ready yet – they are so high end. [But] delays have cost Qatar Airways in excess of $650 million a year in lost opportunities.
“If we delayed even another two months we would take another hit of $150 million. The reason is our summer schedule. Also we can’t delay the deliveries of our Airbus A380s. We have to do it.”
Qatar will move all its Doha operations to the new $15-billion state-of-the-art airport on May 27.
First and business class passengers will be accommodated in other lounges until the facilities are ready. The carrier will launch its first A380 between London Heathrow and Doha in mid-June.
Qatar began a new all-business class service from Heathrow to Doha at the end of last week. The service, operated by a narrow-body Airbus A319, offers 40 lie-flat seats.
Al Baker acknowledged: “Everyone who has done this, operated an all business-class service, has failed.”
But he said: “I am not planning to fail. I only need 26 passengers to break even.”
Al Baker said Qatar would not follow Gulf rival Etihad Airways in launching a luxury product comparable with Etihad’s three-room ‘Residence’ on its A380 upper cabin unveiled earlier this month.
The Qatar chief executive said: “We don’t want to provide a product which only two or three people can afford, increasing fuel burn and only catering for a very limited market.
“To take a passenger in comfort you don’t have to provide a five-metre wide seat.”
Al Baker also repeated an assertion he has made previously, saying: “There will be two major carriers in the [Gulf] region, us and Emirates.
“There can be a third carrier or fourth, but there will be two dominant carriers – Qatar Airways and Emirates.”
Hamad International Airport opened at the end of April with an initial capacity of 30 million passengers a year, rising to 50 million by 2017.
Transfer passengers account for 85% of Qatar’s traffic at Doha and the carrier is considering adding a further extension which would raise capacity to 70 million.