Qatar Airways

[Jerry]

Just checked on the Qatar Airways website and it's still 6 weekly for May which is good news!

 

[Jerry]

Forgot to mention this yesterday. I saw a Facebook post saying yesterday's inbound was full in both cabins and there was a large group of Chinese tourists onboard as well.

 

[Jarvo]

... there was a large group of Chinese tourists onboard as well.

These kind of passengers are going to be crucial for the route in terms of proving value for the local economy to the Welsh Gov. I know it's a generalisation, but decent numbers of Chinese tourists are one of the holy grails for tourism boards across Europe trying to bring in high spenders to the local area so that's great news.
Another one of the things mentioned when the route was launched was the academic connection between Qatari and Welsh universities, so it's worth mentioning the fact that UWTSD are travelling out to Asia on QR in the new year on their tourism trip, spending a few days in Doha, which would have been a bus ride to London otherwise.

One of the benefits of having a MEB3 airline, as is often seen with Ryanair routes, is the power of their websites for advertising to foreign passengers and those who may not otherwise think to look at an Air France/ Flybe connection for their route etc. Hopefully as more tour operators in these countries start selling the route to their customers we'll start seeing even more large group bookings on these flights.
I'd love to see a two capital cities tour package promoted in these countries, flying in to London for a few days, then a group rail or bus booked to take them to Cardiff for a few days before a return flight from Cardiff via Doha.

yesterday's inbound was full in both cabins.

It's also great to see that the Business class seats are selling too as these will be the ones that push the yield up and make retention of the route more likely in the future!

 

[Jerry]

It's also great to see that the Business class seats are selling too as these will be the ones that push the yield up and make retention of the route more likely in the future!

Well i don't think the future is in doubt for the route especially if the business cabin is doing well. If Edinburgh is anything to go by then if the Business cabin and cargo are doing well then maybe they may in the future either upgrade the aircraft type or add more frequency to the route which could help it more as i have seen social media posts that have said they would've used CWL if the timings were better.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Well i don't think the future is in doubt for the route especially if the business cabin is doing well. If Edinburgh is anything to go by then if the Business cabin and cargo are doing well then maybe they may in the future either upgrade the aircraft type or add more frequency to the route which could help it more as i have seen social media posts that have said they would've used CWL if the timings were better.

I can empathise with that. The timings, particularly the long wait at Doha, put us off using Qatar from CWL when we flew to Australia last. Instead we used our usual carrier Emirates from LHR. For the same reason our son and his wife who live in Bristol are using Qatar from LHR va Doha to the Maldives in January.

The service ideally needs to be at least 2 x daily but that might take a while to bring about.

 

[Jarvo]

Without the need for the freight on a second frequency, would an A320 or A321 be a possibility or would the range of the aircraft/ passenger comfort, or the economics of a smaller aircraft on a LH route be a stumbling block on that front?

 

[Jerry]

Without the need for the freight on a second frequency, would an A320 or A321 be a possibility or would the range of the aircraft/ passenger comfort, or the economics of a smaller aircraft on a LH route be a stumbling block on that front?

I think a narrow body would put some people off especially if the business cabin wasn't lie flat, i do believe that Qatar are going to phase out the A320 in favour of the A321neo.

The service ideally needs to be at least 2 x daily but that might take a while to bring about.

With your flight was the problem the morning flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays? Only going off from what i've seen from other airports they seem to add an afternoon flight to the days a morning flight operates.

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

I believe the difficulty is that the am flight serves one load of connections. The pm flight serves another load of connections. (Forgive me as cant remember which is which).

2 x daily is difficult especially when they struggle to remain daily during the winter.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

I believe the difficulty is that the am flight serves one load of connections. The pm flight serves another load of connections. (Forgive me as cant remember which is which).

2 x daily is difficult especially when they struggle to remain daily during the winter.

this is correct. Arrive at Doha at midnight and there will be a whole load of aircraft landing from Europe. Around 2 hours later flights start heading off East while flights depart again for Europe to land in the morning.

 

[Jerry]

2 x daily is difficult especially when they struggle to remain daily during the winter.

Could be just for the summer?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

With your flight was the problem the morning flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays? Only going off from what i've seen from other airports they seem to add an afternoon flight to the days a morning flight operates.

It was over a year ago that we began looking for our November 2018 journey (we aren't going this year) so the precise details escape me. From memory the morning flight would have been ok in terms of the wait at Doha and overall journey length CWL-MEL. The afternoon flight though had an overall journey time of over 40 hours. I think we would have arrived in Doha around midnight and not left for Melbourne until the evening that day.

I have no doubt that for many people the early flight out of CWL would have been fine but we no longer want to get up at silly o'clock, especially when we have a flight to the other side of the world through various time zones. The beauty of LHR for us is that the number of flights from there makes it possible almost to tailor-make your flight times.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just to add to my previous post, we anticipate going to MEL again next autumn/winter and would like to try Qatar as their reputation is excellent in terms of the flights. I'd be keen to use CWL especially as Qatar, unlike Emirates, don't provide chauffeur airport connectivity, which means that getting to LHR for an EK flight is simple.

When we begin to look seriously at dates etc later next year we'll see if we can make CWL work. I'd like to give it a try but if it means getting up with the lark........ We'll see.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

It was over a year ago that we began looking for our November 2018 journey (we aren't going this year) so the precise details escape me. From memory the morning flight would have been ok in terms of the wait at Doha and overall journey length CWL-MEL. The afternoon flight though had an overall journey time of over 40 hours. I think we would have arrived in Doha around midnight and not left for Melbourne until the evening that day.

I have no doubt that for many people the early flight out of CWL would have been fine but we no longer want to get up at silly o'clock, especially when we have a flight to the other side of the world through various time zones. The beauty of LHR for us is that the number of flights from there makes it possible almost to tailor-make your flight times.

now you mention it, (for your example of MEL) i think Qatar have bi-latrels that restrict them operating more in to australia. They’d potentially offer more frequencies if they didn’t (don’t quote me though!).

in comparison, i think they have 3 flights per day into Singapore, one to catch each bank of flights at DOH.

 

[Jerry]

now you mention it, (for your example of MEL) i think Qatar have bi-latrels that restrict them operating more in to australia. They’d potentially offer more frequencies if they didn’t (don’t quote me though!).

in comparison, i think they have 3 flights per day into Singapore, one to catch each bank of flights at DOH.

I think they are limited to 21 weekly flights to Australia. One of their big complaints about One World is Qantas refusing to work with them and codeshare and Qantas partnership with Emirates. They say it restricts what they can offer and isn't in the spirit of alliances.

 

[Jerry]

now you mention it, (for your example of MEL) i think Qatar have bi-latrels that restrict them operating more in to australia. They’d potentially offer more frequencies if they didn’t (don’t quote me though!).

in comparison, i think they have 3 flights per day into Singapore, one to catch each bank of flights at DOH.

I think they are limited to 21 weekly flights to Australia. One of their big complaints about One World is Qantas refusing to work with them and codeshare and Qantas partnership with Emirates. They say it restricts what they can offer and isn't in the spirit of alliances.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

I think they are limited to 21 weekly flights to Australia. One of their big complaints about One World is Qantas refusing to work with them and codeshare and Qantas partnership with Emirates. They say it restricts what they can offer and isn't in the spirit of alliances.

i could see why that would annoy them to be fair.

 

[Jerry]

Qatar Airways being de-iced this morning prior to departure.
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[Jarvo]

In what was a relatively easy exercise thanks to Jerry's monthly breakdowns in the CAA stats thread, I thought I'd have a quick add up and see what the rolling total for the past year has been on the Doha route. Just out of curiosity.

Nov 2018 - 5221
Dec 2018 - 6449
Jan 2019 - 6641
Feb 2019 - 5435
March 2019 - 6106
April 2019 - 7884
May 2019 - 4997
June 2019 - 6077
July 2019 - 10558
August 2019 - 11714
September 2019 - 9030
October 2019 - 7387

That would give a rolling year total on the route to the end of October of 87,472. Hopefully by the two year anniversary of the route we will be looking at a total comfortably into the 90's.

It's strange how poorly May has performed for both years it has been in operation.

 

[Jerry]

It's strange how poorly May has performed for both years it has been in operation.

It is odd but yet the last time I looked 2020 was increased to 6 weekly.
One thing I've noticed is that the business class tickets aren't heavily discounted to me at least and on BAs website the Avios price seems quite high.

 

[KARFA]

It is odd but yet the last time I looked 2020 was increased to 6 weekly.
One thing I've noticed is that the business class tickets aren't heavily discounted to me at least and on BAs website the Avios price seems quite high.

Generally speaking QR don't tend to do great sales exUK, if you want the cheaper fares typically exARN/CPH/OSL/GOT/HEL can be quite good as can some of the eastern European capitals such as BUD/OTP etc.

In terms of avios cost as reward flights they should be inline with other exUK QR flights

LHR-DOH in J on BA 50,000 avios off peak and 60,000 avios peak and £323.47 taxes/fees/charges
LHR-DOH in J on QR 62,000 avios and £349.77 taxes/fees/charges
BHX-DOH in J on QR 62,000 avios and £324.09
CWL-DOH in J on QR 62,000 avios and £329.58