Qatar Airways has quietly retired its Airbus A330 fleet and loaned surplus pilots to RwandAir, as the Iran war continues to squeeze demand and fares.
Qatar is essentially funding both sides of this war (and a lot of the useful idiot propaganda that well meaning college kids are latching on to) ... hard to feel bad for their national airline.
Huh, that's all so interesting. And I thought those campus protests were long-over (like, 2024, just long enough to hand the election to...) Anyway, at least our Dear Leader got a beautiful new 747 'gift' with no strings attached! Such a good businessman... /s (in case anyone really needed it.)
I don't understand this at all. Our Commander in Chief has assured us there is no war.
Why? Truth hurts? Qatar is a nasty Islamic family run fiefdom with zero respect for civil rights and a lot of sympathy for the Iranian regime.
Fellas, woah there, easy now... I hear Jared is already en route; there should be a 'peace deal' and a new luxury island resort bunker thingy, in no time! /s (again, if anyone needed it.)
@Udo . That "nasty Islamic run fiefdom" is still a million times preferrable over the zionist shithole named Israel which is the country you are from probably or maybe just a sympathizer living in the US.
At least Qatar isnt genociding anyone or mass murdering ( of course unlike the dumb world cup propaganda which literally included deaths from car accidents part of stadium construction lol) .
Qatar is also one of the largest sources remittances to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Philippines etc. the countries you accuse it of "slaving". You can check the data. Meanwhile Israel steals money from its colonies using West Bank with settlers.
Israel also used to harvest organs till mid 2000s with dead migrant workers being one of their sources. What sort of civilized country does that?? The Guardian even wrote a report on this.
Nor is Qatar harvesting blood plasma from poor citizens and selling it to foreign countries ( like the USA of course source 70% of blood plasma with largest market being China WTF lol no shame in selling your poor people's blood to your worst rival??? ).
Millions Westerners/Indians fly Qatar airways because the airline knows how to treat its passengers. I know many Indians working as air hostess or pilots in Qatar airways. Good salaries and no taxes
Find me one that flies in El Al lol. None. Who wants even work in El Al lol 🤣. Nobody.
When you fly El Al the first thing they ask is if you read Torah and harass you too if you are not a jew. Meanwhile imagine if Qatar airways gave even the tiniest fuck about Quran lol.
I am lived in Qatar a Indian Hindu from Kerala and there are dozens of Hindu music concerts and Vegetarian Indian restaurants and stuff here. Meanwhile Israel? Nothing absolutely nothing.
And frankly didnt Qatar kick Iranian diplomats out of the country when war started ? They were among the first countries to do it before UAE and Saudi even.
Also whats wrong in Qatar keeping relations with Iran? Before war every Gulf state kept. UAE was biggest investor in Iran pre war.
Qatar/Iran share a fucking gas field so Qatar plays ball. And anyways US started the war that bought mess to the Middle east right? Qatar even now allowing terrorist regime of USA to have a base there is what makes me angriest with Qatar.
Yeah, I wouldn't route through Doha (or anywhere in the ME) anytime soon.
Good for Rwanda, I guess. Qatar was investing in the new airport (Bugesera) in Rwanda as well. (Kigali is actually quite nice. Go see some mountain gorillas!)
"Kigali is actually quite nice."
You're referring to the city and not the airport, aren't you? The airport is...a box. The city itself is fascinating.
The daily price to see the gorillas in Volcanoes National Park is at US $1,500 per day now. I've done this and would do it again (though I visited the park LONG before the price got ridiculous), but the cost is through the roof. It's a quarter of that in the DRC, and about half that in Uganda, though I'd argue that Rwanda is the best site. And the four armed soldiers that accompanied a friend of mine and I on a hike to Dian Fossey's house were there to protect us from "water buffalo." Uh huh. Sure Jan.
Yes, I meant the city. (The current airport, KGL, is... not the best. In fact, I recall it's quite a fortress. Very intense vehicular security process even to enter the grounds.) You are also correct that the permits are not cheap, but it does go to support their conservation efforts. For safety, DRC is a no-go; Uganda is still dealing with things, too. As for the 'escort,' indeed, I recall this as well. Beautiful hike at least. Going up to Bisoke is worthwhile, too, though exhausting. Glad you've been! 🙂
I wonder what sort of load factors they have right now.
Etihad used to publish monthly load factors but funnily enough seemed to have stopped earlier this year.
Flown them a few times over the past couple of months. Flights were nearly full and DOH and the lounges seemed typically busy. But the peak summer travels obviously helped, be curious what their long term bookings look like. Certainly a lot of saver economy tickets available with Avios at the moment
I also flew QR this summer. While the flights were packed, keep in mind that QR kept prices very low and attractive this summer compared to normal fares (same with EY and EK). I managed to book a round-trip last minute ticket on QR for ultra long haul travel from the US for the same price as I would pay booking months out for off-peak travel. QR normally charges more for summer travel on that route I frequent, even when booking in advance (and even more when booking last minute). That wasn't the case this time (nor is it now), so while they can fill their planes, I doubt they're making money.
Keep in mind that Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar serve many high volume destinations for which they have the best itineraries by far for travel to those places (for some destinations, they are the only option), so they are still the best choice for those travelers (though the fares in most of those markets are very low, so they don't make a lot of money).
I would imagine that Qatar (and other gulf carriers) have an advantage with aviation fuel in that they only pay the higher prices on at most one leg of the journey. There's a whole bunch of aviation fuel that's been produced but can't get through the Hormuz strait that they can burn (and so should be priced much lower)
Does anyone think the new Doh-Bog-Ccs route will materialize? It's been postponed twice already. The first time it was soon after the earthquake in Venezuela (so, I guess that one made sense). And a couple months later it was further pushed to November (no formal announcement).
It's bookable but is it realistic?
PS. Award availability was sooooo good on this route :'(
Don't worry, they're getting the money back from the loyalty program by doubling award prices and making awards harder to book.
But they only had 15 active A330s. So its not a massive loss. I wonder if the B777 with 2x2x2 J class are next on the block are on the block. They also lease a few B777s from CX.
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If only this would translate into North American partner J availability…
This. Whatever QR's financial situation, there's obviously no incentive to increase awards through AA. Try to get a J award across the Atlantic. Or any non-stop award from DOH to MLE. US customers would book all day, if they made any of those available.
A drop in demand and unable to raise fares.... since when did that become the economically rational strategy to adopt?
SAS announced getting some A330ceos to bridge the time to getting new A330neos. mmhh.... I wonder if some of the birds will end up at SAS or more growth for Rwandair.
Fairly certain Oman's A330 did enter service?
QATAR SHOULD RESTRUCTURE THE ROUTES COMPLY UNTIL THE SITUATION RETURNED TO NORMALCY
THEY CAN START NEW POPULAR ROUTES WITHOUT TOUCHING
WAR ZONES AND THEY CAN MAINTAIN THEIR REVENUES AND
PROFITS TILL THE WAR IS STOPPED TOTALLY.
As unfortunate as it is, off peak recently I've flown Qsuites with <1/4 of the cabin full on flights sold at absolute rock bottom fares, so it makes sense that something would have to give.
(For some reason this doesn't include any of my U.S. flights which seem fairly busy... please stop flying QR so I can get my hands on Qsuite saver availability, fellow Americans)
Agree with my follow American please stop buying Q suite to the US. It’s always full and I can’t never find a Q suite seats with my Qatar airways Miles. I took a few flights to Spain and England Amsterdam. It’s always full and Ireland also so I don’t know about less demand comment
The conditions of conflicts in ME are beginning to show on QA Flights. Poor movie selections, Business Class does not have the same Goodies they used to have, even the water Bottles are not easily available. It is very sad to see this.
Zero sympathy. They can stay afloat with all their dirty money.