In what has no doubt been one of the most exciting airline controversies of the year, Qatar Airways and Airbus have been going back and forth over the A380. Qatar Airways was supposed to take delivery of their first one several months ago, though apparently wasn't pleased with the quality of the interiors. What followed…
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Love the openess of the 1st class cabin area alot more than the blocked in suites of others.
So so on Qatar Air in general.
As someone who has been involved in numerous aircraft deliveries, this is not uncommon. Because it's an A380 it gets more attention, but this type of thing happens all the time.
The QR F looked acceptable at announcement .. until Etihad totally trumped them with Apartments, then QR F on A380 all of a sudden looks like the seat for the Residence butler
And if QR is actually serious about the F market, they have to reach more places than just LHR and CDG. Why would anyone pay for their F and end up in a J seat for half the journey ?
His Excellency? Is that some sort of joke? Sounds more like a drama queen than a nobleman. Also seems kind of odd to show such overt deference to someone who represents a culture which treats blue collar workers like crap and treats those with alternative lifestyles even worse.
I've actually seen one of them in the air!
I live in Hamburg where the Airbus plant that does the interior for A380s is located and a couple days ago I saw a Qatar A380 making its way there. I figured it might have been a test flight which would mean they are actually taking delivery of them now.
A friend of mine works at Qatar and he sent me some photos from the 380.There is a very unique 'last minute' feature.I can't say or publish the photos of the feature because I don't wanna get sued by His excellency Akbar Al Baker.
So it's true! Al Bakar's obsessive attention to detail is to blame for the delays. Not that it's a bad thing. If they made clear what the interior specs were to be in the first place and someone at airbus fudged it up, that's not QA's fault...IF that's what went down...
@ patricia -- Don't think they're really going after the first class market. Soon enough the A380s will be the only planes they have with first class, and they'll have fewer than a dozen of them.
@ Kirby -- The British Airways website:
https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-search-tool/
Know people that work at QR and, yes, he is super picky. Every single piece of paper in the entire company requires his signature. Oh, and btw, "His Excellency" is a fabrication of the company's media department. It's not been given by the government. A little Napoleonic.
"“We have no residents and no suites and no butlers. But we have class," says His Excellency. http://blogs.wsj.com/middleeast/2014/09/17/qatar-airways-plans-a-business-class-revolution/
I guess they're not reconfiguring their A380 first class after all!