BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB
DOHA: Qatar Airways (QA) fares are 10 to 15 percent cheaper than those of competing airlines, said Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar’s national carrier, yesterday.
“As far as the fares of QA are concerned, I think there is an absolute misleading perception about them,” Al Baker said in reply to a question on why QA fares are higher than its rivals’ such as Emirates and Etihad Airways.
Al Baker said: “Every airline in the world follows the price strategy of QA. Our prices in Qatar are presumed higher because when you purchase a ticket for point-to-point travel, the passengers have to pay a little higher.”
However, he said if one buys a ticket from Doha to London, or Doha to Paris from Qatar in a particular class of travel and he buys the same ticket from QA competitors, he will realise that QA prices on an average are between 10 and 15 percent cheaper (point-to-point).
“When you take an origin-destination (O&D) passenger ticket, our competitors are cheaper, but in the same way, we also offer cheaper rates in their markets here. This is an industry practice worldwide,” Al Baker said, adding his signature humour — “If you want to pay a little extra, fly from Abu Dhabi or Dubai directly.”
Reiterating his claims about QA fares, he said: “Very recently my board asked for an independent audit of QA prices to convince that what I am saying was correct. When results came, it was exactly what I was saying that QA prices are 10 to 15 percent cheaper than its competitors’.”
Al Baker was speaking at a press conference to commemorate the first landing of A350 XWB, the world’s newest and most modern wide-body aircraft, at Hamad International Airport (HIA).
The A350XWB is en route to the Singapore Airshow and landed here for a couple of days to honour Qatar Airways, which is the launch customer of A350 with 80 firm orders.
Asked about the profitability of QA, Al Baker said: “Every airline has different strategy. As far as QA is concerned, we are very keen to follow the strategy chartered by His Highness the Emir. To this, we are absolutely on the dot.”
He said QA is delivering the kind of economic benefits an airline gives to any country. “For a country like Qatar with such a strong economic growth, QA is playing an important role in achieving sustainable economic development goals,” he added.
Highlighting the significance of having a national carrier, he said: “Just imagine what would the situation be if QA does not exist. Qatar will have to rely on foreign carriers to serve its economic interests which can be easily undermined by those entities.” He said QA is very successful in its strategy, and expanding with a remarkable double-digit growth.
“If there is a classification which categorises the fastest growing airlines, year-on-year, the compound annual growth rate of QA will be the highest.”
Asked about challenges faced by QA as a launch customer of A350, Al Baker said: “It was not difficult at all for many reasons.
“First, QA has strong confidence in Airbus, and second, when we introduce a programme, we also expect benefits from Airbus as we are a launch customer, and we always want to be at the forefront of any new programme to maintain a fleet of modern, fuel-efficient and technologically advanced aircraft.”
The Peninsula
