Qatar Airways

[Jerry]

I noticed a few interesting numbers in the article linked below about the Qatar Airways route at CWL. I've highlighted what i feel are key points.
From May to October 2019 the route saw 50,000 passengers use it which was an increase of 6,000 up 13.5% on 2018.
The split of passengers is 52% originating from the UK and 48% are visitors, also 18% of the UK passengers are from England, for the airport as a whole 4% of it's passengers are from England.
11% of the passengers use the route for Business and 89% for leisure.
The most popular final destinations from Cardiff are Doha 11%, Bangkok 10%, Perth and Sydney 6%, Bali 4% and Kuwait, Lahore, Kuala Lumpur and Amristar all at 3% and Auckland 2%.
Inbound the route is attracting more numbers especially from Qatar and also Oman and Kuwait.
It was noted that the route isn't maximising it's freight potential especially outbound and that the popularity of Thailand could be exploited more especially in the winter and that there was a good opportunity for Wales fans travelling to New Zealand in the summer to use the route.
With the route 18 months old the figures are encouraging that the route is maturing well compared to Birmingham and is on track for it's 4 year maturity level. The question then will be whether Qatar deploy bigger aircraft or add frequency if the route gets to the maturity level needed.

How many people are flying on Qatar Airways' Cardiff to Doha route?

Passenger numbers so far into the route's second year are encouraging

www.business-live.co.uk

 

[Jarvo]

A really interesting article, thanks for sharing Jerry.
The Welsh Gov will be no doubt delighted that 48% of passengers are visitors to Wales and the route has become a lot more than a de facto charter flight to the beaches of Thailand.
It's also good to see the airport recognising the woeful outbound freight. Some months there has been single digit tonnage, something which can't continue.
Going forward I think everyone would prefer a higher frequency over a larger aircraft... but the fact that over the summer season particularly, we're probably only two years away from that being an actual discussion is great news.
Nearly one in five outbound passengers being from across the border is exactly what this and future LH routes need. With CWL being on these passengers' radars for LH, any future transatlantic routes may have a nice boost before they even begin to mature.
All in all, very encouraging considering this time last year the CEO of QR was publicly slating the passenger numbers.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

A good read.

 

[Jerry]

Apart from the split between UK and visitors I am surprised that the airport released such a breakdown of the route like that in what were the most popular markets and how many are using it from England. I'd have thought that would be classed as sensitive info.

As for the future I think it will depend on the aircraft types they have but hopefully the route might have matured enough to go 10 weekly with a 787.

Freight wise I wonder if they've found it harder to attract businesses to use the route than they thought? The food industry does seem to be a big target for them especially considering the blockade of Qatar. I wonder if the airport has someone dedicated to the cargo side of the business in general to go find the customers not just for the Doha route but for other adhoc cargo flights as well? The cargo side of the business in general doesn't seem to be taking off which is a little surprising considering Wales is an exporting nation in general.

But it does seem positive for the Doha route in general though.

 

[Jarvo]

The cargo side of the business in general doesn't seem to be taking off which is a little surprising considering Wales is an exporting nation in general.

It may just be down to the fact this is the first route of its type in the region... Ever.
Many Welsh exporting businesses therefore are going to have extensive procedure, routines, relationships and contracts that revolve around alternative arrangements, be that from Heathrow or elsewhere.

The QR route would have to offer a level of convenience, cost saving and confidence that the route is going to be continuing indefinitely.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I'm very surprised at the percentage of 'English' travellers - which would mean those with an origin or final destination in England. I didn't expect that high a percentage given the West of England's (I presume the source of most of the 'English' travellers) propensity to automatically look to LHR for long haul travel. With a single daily flight meaning that some connecting times at Doha can be unattractively long this should be seen as an encouraging trend. If it ever became possible to increase frequency leading to greater flexibility for passengers and shorter transfer times the percentage would become higher.

All in all it's a postive article.

 

[Jerry]

I'm very surprised at the percentage of 'English' travellers

The airport team have been working with a lot of travel agents on the other side of the bridge, so i wonder if many of the English passengers have booked through travel agents and are traveling on packages.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The airport team have been working with a lot of travel agents on the other side of the bridge, so i wonder if many of the English passengers have booked through travel agents and are traveling on packages.

Very likely.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

With the announcement of EDI going to 2x daily to DOH I've done a comparison of CWL, BHX and EDI for QR in 2019 so far;
View attachment 15633
From the start of the year BHX has remained fairly close to the figures EDI are achieving but from peak summer EDI has grown rapidly and the gap between CWL and BHX has closed.
The daily seats column is based on a daily 787 flight at CWL. Appreciate different Aircraft types have possibly been through BHX and EDI, and that CWL wasn't daily during the winter, but it's just there for simple comparison. In Winter, both EDI and BHX wouldn't have been filling a daily 787. I'm not sure when EDI was 10 weekly, but it will soon be 14 weekly.
The optimistic side of me is thinking that if QR are concentrating on frequency over LF, then as CWL hopefully continues to grow there may be potential down the line for 10 weekly during the peak summer. I'm not sure of the frequency at BHX but it's often commented regarding CWL-DOH that there are long connection times on some routes through DOH. So with a 10 weekly the there could be more connection options opened up which will help increase passenger numbers. Most say that QR's prices are generally quite reasonable and comparable to other Airports, but it's the connection times on certain routes that put people off.

 

[Jarvo]

I'm always a little shocked by the way DOH preforms in May, and it turns out it's not just Cardiff.
The fact CWL is pretty much exactly half of EDI's pax and EDI gets a 2x daily... That's a good sign, using simple logic, for the viability of CWL's 1x daily service.
As far as frequency increases in the next couple of years, the best CWL can hope for is a shortening of the 5x weekly period, as has happened this year.

 

[nwoody2001]

your table has not taken into account that EDI increase from 7x weekly to 10x weekly in June hence the jump in capacity from EDI

 

[Foxlimayankee]

your table has not taken into account that EDI increase from 7x weekly to 10x weekly in June hence the jump in capacity from EDI

I did say in my post that I wasn't sure of when the increases were and that the daily seats available were for CWL and simplified to daily throughout the year. It wasn't meant to be a detailed comparison as I didnt know exact frequencies and aircraft types, just to show what the figures were and to draw your own conclusions.

July and Sept is likely supported by students travelling at the end and start of term and August being the peak holiday month.
It's the Winter figures that CWL needs to concentrate on. BHX remains fairly consistent in winter vs summer yet CWL was nearly half. Will be interesting to see if this winter's figures hold up better as the route is maturing.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

I did say in my post that I wasn't sure of when the increases were and that the daily seats available were for CWL and simplified to daily throughout the year. It wasn't meant to be a detailed comparison as I didnt know exact frequencies and aircraft types, just to show what the figures were and to draw your own conclusions.

July and Sept is likely supported by students travelling at the end and start of term and August being the peak holiday month.
It's the Winter figures that CWL needs to concentrate on. BHX remains fairly consistent in winter vs summer yet CWL was nearly half. Will be interesting to see if this winter's figures hold up better as the route is maturing.

I think BHX have a larger foreign born/2nd generation migrant population who will use the cooler winter months to travel home to Asia, along with using the christmas time off for it too.

 

[Jerry]

With the winter the airport has mentioned pushing holidays to Thailand more and considering the lack of winter routes from TUI hopefully Qatar may well be able to benefit from that!
The only snag I can see is that if I wanted to book a holiday a year in advance I wouldn't be able to do that online with TUI to Thailand but I could to Tenerife.

 

[bluebols]

Qatar have done a fantastic deal which a couple of my Liverpool supporting friends have taken advantage of, a trip to see the semi and final including accommodation and flight under £520.00. ( But treble that for a few drinks )

 

[TheLocalYokel]

With the announcement of EDI going to 2x daily to DOH I've done a comparison of CWL, BHX and EDI for QR in 2019 so far;
View attachment 15633
From the start of the year BHX has remained fairly close to the figures EDI are achieving but from peak summer EDI has grown rapidly and the gap between CWL and BHX has closed.
The daily seats column is based on a daily 787 flight at CWL. Appreciate different Aircraft types have possibly been through BHX and EDI, and that CWL wasn't daily during the winter, but it's just there for simple comparison. In Winter, both EDI and BHX wouldn't have been filling a daily 787. I'm not sure when EDI was 10 weekly, but it will soon be 14 weekly.
The optimistic side of me is thinking that if QR are concentrating on frequency over LF, then as CWL hopefully continues to grow there may be potential down the line for 10 weekly during the peak summer. I'm not sure of the frequency at BHX but it's often commented regarding CWL-DOH that there are long connection times on some routes through DOH. So with a 10 weekly the there could be more connection options opened up which will help increase passenger numbers. Most say that QR's prices are generally quite reasonable and comparable to other Airports, but it's the connection times on certain routes that put people off.

Interesting set of stats - many thanks.

The single-daily schedule does put some people off if it means a long wait at Doha for onward connectivity. I looked long and hard last year to see if I could make Qatar work for my wife and me for our near annual VFR flight to Melbourne. I found that the overall journey time would be around 40 hours at least one way with the current schedule from CWL. I'd like to try Qatar and could have done so from LHR last year without a long wait at DOH but if I'm going to use them I want to see what the CWL experience is like. Our usual carrier is Emirates from London - either LGW or LHR.

A 2 x daily schedule would certainly attract some of those people who find some of the current Doha waits too long so they would be new passengers for the CWL-DOH route. Whether there would be enough together with extra p2p passengers to justify the additional frequency probably only Qatar would have an idea.

As has already been said perhaps a 10 x weekly might be a way of testing the waters. No doubt Qatar will be loooking to see how the second 12 months of the route compares with the first 12 months before considering frequency changes.

 

[superking]

Watching the world cup final in Qatar with Liverpool playing. It made me wonder how many Liverpool fans flew from CWL if any.

 

[Jerry]

Watching the world cup final in Qatar with Liverpool playing. It made me wonder how many Liverpool fans flew from CWL if any.

I'd imagine that there would be some as Liverpool is a well supported team in Wales.

 

[IanFarquharson]

I'd imagine that there would be some as Liverpool is a well supported team in Wales.

Lots of Liverpool fans on BHX QR A359 in the last few days.
Very healthy outbound loads.

 

[Jerry]

For Qatar 6486 used the Doha route in November up 24% average LF of 147 and 58%.