News
Qatar Airways and Emirates Airline up capacity on key routes
July 8th 2016
Qatar Airways this week increased capacity on three routes. The carrier replaced the B777-300ER with the A380 on its daily flight to Guangzhou, making the south Chinese city the airline’s fourth A380 destination, following London, Paris and Bangkok. Read More »
The Akbar Al Baker-led carrier also replaced the A320 with the A330 on its daily rotation to Warsaw, and it is now deploying the B787 to Geneva, also replacing the A320.
Moreover, the oneworld member launched a thrice-weekly B787 route to Marrakech on July 1.
Meanwhile, despite Britain’s Brexit vote, Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, this week reported that Qatar Airways is looking to further increase its shareholding in British Airways parent, IAG, to approximately 20%.
Across the Gulf, in Dubai, Emirates Airline last week added a second daily A380 service to Los Angeles, and it replaced the B777 with the A380 on one of its double daily rotation to Vienna.
On Brexit, Emirates CEO, Tim Clark, said he was worried Brexit might hit demand following Britain's historic vote to leave the 28-nation bloc, compounding heightened security fears since suicide bombing attacks on airports in Brussels and Istanbul.
"What you're seeing is consumer confidence constantly being eroded. This predated Brexit, but Brexit hasn't helped," he said. "We have $120-$150 billion worth of aircraft coming down the lines… I'd like to think that I'm going to be able to take all those planes and get some stability in the market and get demand kick-started."
In Muscat, Oman Air chief, Paul Gregorowitsch, last week said the airline was open to investing in Indian carriers, following New Delhi's recent decision to allow foreign companies to control up to 100% of local airlines. "Recently the Indian government has allowed us to grow and now we are knocking for further growth," he told CNBC in an interview. "With new airports, as well as an open skies regime, it makes more sense to team up with an Indian player."
