Qatar Airways increasing focus on London
Qatar Airways opened a premium lounge at London Heathrow at the end of Jan-2012, the carrier's first premium lounge facility outside of its home hub at Doha. Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker, said that London Heathrow was the "obvious choice" for the new premium lounge, as the London Heathrow service is one of the carrier's best performing routes.
The new lounge reinforces London's position as one of the airline's most important destinations. Qatar Airways operates four daily services to London Heathrow, offering more than 11,000 seats per week with a mix of A330-200/300, A340-600 and Boeing 777-300ER equipment. The carrier also codeshares with bmi and United Airlines on the Doha-London Heathrow service.
- Qatar Airways opened its first premium lounge outside of Doha at London Heathrow in January 2012.
- London Heathrow is one of Qatar Airways' best performing routes, with four daily services and over 11,000 seats per week.
- London Heathrow is a key destination for Middle Eastern airlines, with more weekly frequencies operated by Gulf region carriers than other European hubs.
- Qatar Airways plans to increase its operations to London Heathrow to five times daily from March 2012, ahead of the London Olympic Games.
- Qatar Airways will deploy its first Boeing 787 aircraft on services to London Heathrow, allowing for route and frequency development in Europe.
- The 787 will have a seating configuration with around 20 seats fewer than the A330-200s and will feature a luxurious business class, without premium economy.
Qatar Airways' London Heathrow lounge follows, after some time, similar lounges from competitors Etihad Airways and Emirates. Etihad Airways opened a dedicated premium lounge at Heathrow in 2009 while Emirates has operated a dedicated first/business class passenger lounge since 2006.
London Heathrow is the most heavily trafficked destination in Europe for Middle Eastern airlines, beating out other hubs such as Frankfurt, Milan and Paris. It is a particularly strong destination for GCC airlines, with more than 140 weekly frequencies operated by Gulf region carriers alone.
GCC airline operations to London area airports from Gulf hubs
|
Carrier |
Origin |
London area airport |
Weekly frequencies |
Weekly seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
35 |
31,178 |
|||
|
21 |
7371 |
|||
|
21 |
10,976 |
|||
|
Manama |
14 |
3066 |
||
|
7 |
1610 |
|||
|
10 |
2560 |
|||
|
Doha |
28 |
11,078 |
||
|
7 |
2009 |
|||
|
7 |
2009 |
Outside of the new lounge, Qatar Airways has significant plans for its London Heathrow operation this year, reinforcing London's position as the carrier's preeminent premium route. The carrier is due to increase its operations to five times daily from 25-Mar-2012, two months ahead of the start of the London Olympic Games. The additional frequency will be operated by one of the carrier's 777-200LRs. The 777-200LRs feature 217 economy and 42 business seats for a 259 total, featuring lie-flat seating and a 2-2-2 configuration in business class.
Qatar Airways has also announced it plans to deploy its first 787 on services to London. The carrier has 30 787s on order and is due to take delivery of its first aircraft around Jun-2012 following delays from a previous end-2011 delivery date. Another four 787s are expected to be delivered to the carrier over 2H2012.
Qatar Airways plans to initially deploy the 787 on a number of Middle East region routes to allow crews to become familiarised with the aircraft, as is common with airlines and new aircraft types.
The aircraft will then shift to long-haul routes, with London Heathrow as its first European destination. Mr Al Baker said the 787 would be an excellent tool for route and frequency development in Europe, allowing the carrier to economically serve routes that it may not be able to otherwise economically operate with its existing fleet.
While Qatar Airways has not announced a detailed seating configuration for its 787 yet, Mr Al Baker previously confirmed the aircraft will have around 20 seats fewer than on its A330-200s and will feature two classes. The business class on Qatar "will be more luxurious than any first class flying today," according to the CEO, who has dismissed any notion of fitting premium economy seating, arguing economy class will be sufficient enough not to warrant a premium cabin. The appearance of first class on a Qatar Airways aircraft will be reserved for the A380, which the carrier will start taking delivery of from 2013.
Deploying the 787s on Doha-London Heathrow will result in a marginal reduction in capacity but with significantly lower unit costs.
Known 787-8 seating configurations
|
Airline |
Type |
Total seats |
First |
Business |
Premium economy |
Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Standard |
256 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
238 |
|
|
ANA |
Domestic |
264 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
252 |
|
ANA |
Short-haul |
222 |
0 |
42 |
0 |
180 |
|
ANA |
Long-haul |
158 |
0 |
46 |
0 |
112 |
|
Long-haul |
186 |
0 |
42 |
0 |
144 |
|
|
Standard |
252 |
0 |
18 |
21 |
213 |
|
|
Standard |
219 |
0 |
36 |
63 |
120 |
Known 787-8 configurations range from just 158 seats for All Nippon Airways' (ANA) long-haul configuration up to Japan Air Lines, up to 264 seats for ANA's domestic short-haul. Qatar Airways' A330s feature 228-272 seats for the -200 and 249-305 seats for the -300. Its larger 777-300ERs have 335 seats, and 777-200LRs have 259.