Qatar Airways

[jfy1999]

Thank you @Scottie Dog for stepping in, i was busy and unfortunately missed out on the discussion before it turned into an argument.

Discussing possible reasons why Qatar haven’t increased BHX is perfectly legitimate but as others have said, please keep it civil

Everyone should just calm down and take a chill pill. No need for the personal attacks. Only Qatar Airways has access to true yield figures, but I assume that there must be a reason why we haven’t seen expansion yet they pour the flights into Heathrow/Ringway

The issue is that it’s not simply a matter of profitable vs unprofitable, it’s usually a matter of smaller profit vs larger profit. So if Qatar have a spare aircraft, they might be actually able to make a profit out of BHX on a 2nd daily flight, but to all intents and purposes it seems the airline thinks that putting that aircraft into LHR will result in a larger profit.

Since British Airways and Qatar Airways codeshare it’s also possible that as BA have been reducing their Doha frequency lately, Qatar could be taking up slots that BA have dropped.

I should stress that these are just educated guesses on my part.

 

[tompo]

Can you name these destinations in Qatar you refer to please? and also, why this is a problem?

Hub and spoke airlines like Qatar and Emirates thrive on the fact you book onward connecting flights. Why have a passenger only pay for 1 return flight when they can pay for 2 return flights by connecting on to another destination.

Whilst this information is not in the public domain, I suspect a vast majority of Pax flying on QR/EK/TK etc... are connecting on to onward destinations. Why you think people from BHX don't like to connect is beyond me....

Correct. I travel very regularly on both airlines to destinations in the Far East and Australia. I rarely transit immediately and therefore can observe the issue being discussed. The travelling public can easily ascertain the ultimate destination of the flight’s travellers by assessing the total baggage collection at the belt in addition to observing the number of pax who follow the transit signage on arrival. I can guarantee that every flight via the two hubs in question has more than 80% transit pax.

 

[nwoody2001]

Thank you @Scottie Dog for stepping in, i was busy and unfortunately missed out on the discussion before it turned into an argument.

Discussing possible reasons why Qatar haven’t increased BHX is perfectly legitimate but as others have said, please keep it civil


The issue is that it’s not simply a matter of profitable vs unprofitable, it’s usually a matter of smaller profit vs larger profit. So if Qatar have a spare aircraft, they might be actually able to make a profit out of BHX on a 2nd daily flight, but to all intents and purposes it seems the airline thinks that putting that aircraft into LHR will result in a larger profit.

Since British Airways and Qatar Airways codeshare it’s also possible that as BA have been reducing their Doha frequency lately, Qatar could be taking up slots that BA have dropped.

I should stress that these are just educated guesses on my part.

And this explains perfectly why just because Qatar have not increased frequencies yet, this doesn’t mean the route is low yielding or a failure.

Airlines are not charities. If a route was low yielding or failing, the route simply wouldn’t exist. The airline would withdraw it. The fact the route has remained full and frequencies retained means the route has atleast met the expectations of the airline.

There will be higher yielding routes ahead of us on the list needing expansion before we get it… and that’s not just in the UK but across all routes Qatar operates. I don’t know the answer but of the other 9 routes Qatar relaunched alongside BHX in 2023, it will be interesting to see how many of them have had increased frequencies, been retained, or even cancelled?!

It is just a waiting game… but with ever increasing travel demand, competition and growth constraints in the south-east, there is plenty of potential for growth form QR/EK/SV at BHX in the coming years…

 

[rollo]

Couple of points re Qatar and BHX/LHR slots at Heathrow are aviation gold dust and can be a licence to print money.

Regarding Qatar increasing frequency and or capacity at BHX maybe part of the issue is both Boeing and Airbus are struggling to meet demand and hopefully as Qatar get more deliveries, 130 787s and 30 779 on order we get an increase on the route. Meanwhile we as ever are caught between MAN/ LHR who both have seen frequency increases so continue to mop up demand from the Midlands.

As was pointed out yesterday amongst the mayhem the all important yield from Birmingham should be pretty good given Qatars fare pricing.

Hopefully it's just a matter of time and patience.

Finally as an afterthought if Qatar did increase Emirates could react in a positive way and vice versa

 

[IanFarquharson]

Couple of points re Qatar and BHX/LHR slots at Heathrow are aviation gold dust and can be a licence to print money.

Regarding Qatar increasing frequency and or capacity at BHX maybe part of the issue is both Boeing and Airbus are struggling to meet demand and hopefully as Qatar get more deliveries, 130 787s and 30 779 on order we get an increase on the route. Meanwhile we as ever are caught between MAN/ LHR who both have seen frequency increases so continue to mop up demand from the Midlands.

As was pointed out yesterday amongst the mayhem the all important yield from Birmingham should be pretty good given Qatars fare pricing.

Hopefully it's just a matter of time and patience.

Finally as an afterthought if Qatar did increase Emirates could react in a positive way and vice versa

As I have said many times, Qatar must be more than happy simply filling a daily 788 at what are not cheap fares. Remember when they launched all those years ago they were 8 weekly from day one and reduced to 7 weekly. Any BHX overspill is just absorbed from London / Manchester

 

[rollo]

Saturday was the day that had the twice daily flights when they launched.

 

[mullion]

If they need more seats why not upgrade to 789 from 788

 

[IanFarquharson]

If they need more seats why not upgrade to 789 from 788

Obviously not got a spare one

 

[mullion]

Don`t think that is so as they change very often at MAN like the second flight this morning was upgraded to an A350-9 from 789 and the lunchtime varies quite often between B777/A350 1000 and A350 900

 

[nwoody2001]

I thought this might be interesting for some of you to see....

I know there is a lot of frustration that Qatar has not increased at BHX since their relaunch. So i thought i would see how the BHX routes compares to other routed that were launched (new) or relaunched by Qatar in 2023 which were announced in 2023. The results may interest....

Yes, the likes of Casablanca, Marrakesh and Nice are long-haul routes which can increased from 3-4x weekly to 7x weekly, some also with bigger aircraft. But then you have the likes of Osaka and Haneda in Japan who have had their capacity reduced since relaunching, and routes including Lyon, Medan and Toulouse have had their routes cancelled! Alongside Birmingham, we have Beijing, and Phnom Penh that has not had their capacity changed.

yes we see the likes of Qatar increase on routes like LHR/MAN where they have been established for a while. but it seems that its not a given that QR will increase within. In fact based on the route below, we are doing well to have retain the route and capacity we have.

Hopefully things will change for the better with some positive news in the next 12-24 months!

NEW	2023	2026	Change
Lyon	4x weekly (788)	0x weekly	Cancelled
Medan	3x weekly (788)	0x weekly	Cancelled
Toulouse	3x weekly (333)	0x weekly	Cancelled
Trabzon	3x weekly (320)	5x weekly (320)	Increased
RELAUNCH	2023	2026	Change
Beijing	7x weekly (77W)	7x weekly (77W)	No Change
Birmingham	7x weekly (788)	7x weekly (788)	No Change
Buenos Aires	7x weekly (77W)	0x weekly	Not Implemented
Casablanca	3x weekly (788)	7x weekly (359)	Increased
Davao	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Marrakech	4x weekly (788)	7x weekly (359)	Increased
Nice	4x weekly (788)	7x weekly (359)	Increase
Osaka	7x weekly (359)	5x weekly (359)	Decreased
Phnom Penh	7x weekly (77W)	7x weekly (77W)	No Change
Ras Al-Khaimah	7x weekly (320)	Unknown	Unknown
Tokyo (Haneda)	7x weekly (77W)	7x weekly (789)	Decreased

 

[Matt995]

as per aeroroutes:-

Qatar Airways schedules one-time 354-seater 777-300ER service to Birmingham on 21FEB26

 

[AdamHussain07]

as per aeroroutes:-

Qatar Airways schedules one-time 354-seater 777-300ER service to Birmingham on 21FEB26

Q-suite triple 7 I think? The only type that has that would be "77P" according to Aerolopa. configured C42Y312. Interesting nonetheless, nice change from the 788 even if only one off.

 

[KARFA]

Yes it’s this variant which has 42 q suites and 312 in economy

QR Boeing 777-300ER type 77P - AeroLOPA | Detailed aircraft seat plans

Hola > Qatar Airways > Boeing 777-300ERQatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER type 77P, configured 42J 312M and equipped with Qsuites in Business Class

www.aerolopa.com

 

[AdamHussain07]

I’d know I’d sit at 31A on that, just to get a good view of the wing, or 33A.

 

[IanFarquharson]

July 3rd and 6th both upgraded to A359 - F1 related

 

[AdamHussain07]

Would anyone happen to know why the Qatari today was towed to a remote stand? Noticed it on FR24. I wonder if there was any PAX in it? No idea if it went tech, or was just moved to make up space.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Would anyone happen to know why the Qatari today was towed to a remote stand? Noticed it on FR24. I wonder if there was any PAX in it? No idea if it went tech, or was just moved to make up space.

Went tech departed a few hours late and the load - 254 !

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

Qatar B77W operating QR35/36 tomorrow.STC

 

[IanFarquharson]

Qatar B77W operating QR35/36 tomorrow.STC

Only due to todays outbound flight being cancelled

 

[AdamHussain07]

In regards to earlier posts, A7-BEW (A 2018 built 77W) for tomorrow’s QR35 service, STC.