AFTER performing a great job during global COVID-19 pandemic restrictions phase, Qatar Airways is fast moving on the recovery plan with restoring its world-class services for almost all important destinations of the world.
In a short span of time after lifting or relaxing of coronavirus restrictions in different parts of the world, Qatar Airways has rebuilt network to over 550 weekly flights to over 85 destinations.
Qatar Airways has increased frequencies to Ankara and Cebu to daily, Clark to six-weekly, Dhaka to five-weekly while Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur will increase to double daily and Istanbul (SAW) will increase to triple daily. The airline also recently announced the resumption of flights to Adelaide, Auckland, Houston, Kigali, London Gatwick, Nairobi, Philadelphia and Sialkot.
Qatar Airways also recently started operating flights between India and Doha from 13 cities in India.
According to the latest IATA data, Qatar Airways has become the largest international carrier between April to June by fulfilling its mission of taking people home. This enabled the airline to accumulate unrivalled experience in carrying passengers safely and reliably and uniquely positioned the airline to effectively rebuild its network.
The carrier has also stringently implemented the most advanced safety and hygiene measures on board its aircraft and in Hamad International Airport.
Meanwhile honouring airline’s commitment with passengers, Qatar Airways has paid out over $1.2 billion in refunds to almost 600,000 passengers since March.
Qatar Airways has processed almost all refunds requested since March 2020 (96%). The airline is now processing all new refunds back to the original form of payment in less than 30 days.
Additionally, the airline introduced a flexible booking policy that has proved extremely popular with passengers. Qatar Airways tickets are now valid for two years from the date of issuance.
Passengers can also choose to change their travel date or destination free of charge as often as they need, change their origin to another city within the same country or any other destination on the airline’s network within a 5,000 mile radius of the original, exchange their ticket for a future travel voucher worth 110% of the original ticket value, or swap their tickets for Qmiles. Over one third (36%) of Qatar Airways passengers selected one of these options over a refund.
In terms of manpower, Qatar Airways redeployed employees from other areas of the business – for example its Cabin Crew and Ground Services staff – to join the airline’s global network of customer contact centres to help manage the large volume of online requests and customer phone calls.
