Qatar Airways is attacking airline startup Riyadh Air in its newest ad campaign, essentially accusing the airline of being a copycat. This is sort of subtle, but also not at all. Apparently this is also the first of many ads on this topic.
In this post:
Qatar Airways calls Riyadh Air copycat airline in new ad
Qatar Airways has today released the first of a series of ads. The first ad is captioned with “they say laughter is contagious, well apparently so are our great ideas,” wishing people a “happy World Laughter Day.”
In the 30-second ad, a man in a purple tie is seen giving a press conference, where he says “we’re revolutionizing the industry, we’re invested in the future of travel, we’re innovating, we’re introducing state of the art technology, we’re doing something new…”
At the same time, one reporter (or something) is heard whispering to another, “but hasn’t Qatar Airways already done this?” Then a voice comes on saying “there’s a reason why we’ve been chosen as the world’s best, again and again.”
The average traveler may not get the reference, but it’s pretty clear what’s going on here. This ad is clearly targeted at Riyadh Air, with the person in the ad intended to represent Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas (formerly the CEO of Etihad).
As you can see, the guy even wears a purple tie, which is Riyadh Air’s signature color (though if he really wanted to look like Tony Douglas, he should’ve worn a more colorful suit!). For that matter, the talking points largely match those of Douglas, regarding Riyadh Air being innovative, state of the art, etc.
Expect a lot more where this came from…
This is the most direct attack that we’ve seen from Qatar Airways against Riyadh Air, but it sounds like it’ll be the first of many.
In the past, we’ve seen more subtle attacks. For example, on the day that Riyadh Air unveiled its new Boeing 787 cabins…
…Qatar Airways posted to social media about how it has the world’s best business class. The timing almost certainly wasn’t a coincidence.
So, why is Qatar Airways threatened by Riyadh Air, perhaps more so than airlines like Emirates? Well, Riyadh’s CEO laid it out pretty clearly several weeks back, when he pointed out that the number one source of premium passengers on Qatar Airways is Saudi passport holders. He called this “haram,” and said that it’s “totally and utterly unacceptable.” So obviously Riyadh Air wants to regain much of that local market share on a national airline.
While Emirates also has a good amount of local Saudi traffic, Dubai is a more popular leisure destination than Doha, and Saudis only make up the third largest passenger group for Emirates, according to Douglas.
What’s my take of this campaign? I mean, as someone who likes to observe a bit of drama, I’m amused by this. Competition is also good for consumers, and I imagine we’ll see quite a competitive response with Qatar Airways pricing out of Saudi Arabia when Riyadh Air actually launches.
Clearly Qatar Airways is taking the approach of marketing how “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Meanwhile Emirates is taking more the approach of “a lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep,” or something.
Bottom line
Qatar Airways seems to be launching a series of new ads, targeting Riyadh Air. In the first ad of the series, someone who is clearly intended to represent Riyadh Air’s CEO is talking about the new state of the art things they’re working on, when a reporter cuts in and mentions that Qatar Airways has done this before. Expect a lot more of this, given just how much Saudi traffic Qatar Airways transports.
What do you make of this Qatar Airways ad?
i actually think it's really funny that they're getting in a cat fight, they're so catty
If I didn't know otherwise, you could've convinced me that His Excellency was still the boss of QR with content like this lol. Next he'll start rubbing salt into the wound of SV.
I should add that the reason why QR is eating Saudi Arabia's lunch is that QR flies 5 widebodies daily between DOH and RUH/JED each. Meanwhile, SV flies a single narrowbody between the two airport pairs.
Doesn't take an airline CEO to figure out how and why QR is poaching all of the Saudi fliers
What do you know about the Saudi consumer market. You think local Saudi’s are going to take their business to Qatar. They would never, it’s a matter of pride.
Low income will always take the cheapest flight.
Only battle here is the “middle class - expats”, will they route through Qatar to go to London/Europe, probably not as much as you think. So chill out.
I just can't see any self respecting westerner choosing RA over Qatar..... RA will NOT have alcohol on board for just thr same reason Tony says Saudis prefer QA and that's because alcohol is HARAM!! At the end of the day Qatar didn't move the needle on RA with any free publicity by attacking them.... It was just a little squirt of camel piss in their direction to say, "Nice Try Tony"!
I just Hope Saudis & UAE don't Ban the Qatari Flights to fly over their air space again.
I’m all for competition and think it’s good for the consumer but frankly Riyadh air isn’t offering me anything the ME4 don’t. Nothing about their product entices me to pick them over carriers I already fly and like, and I imagine most feel the same. I feel like their passengers will primarily be Saudi nationals, people flying specifically to Riyadh, and people burned by QR customer service. Not a recipe for a wildly successful airline...
I’m all for competition and think it’s good for the consumer but frankly Riyadh air isn’t offering me anything the ME4 don’t. Nothing about their product entices me to pick them over carriers I already fly and like, and I imagine most feel the same. I feel like their passengers will primarily be Saudi nationals, people flying specifically to Riyadh, and people burned by QR customer service. Not a recipe for a wildly successful airline tbh, I imagine the best they can aspire to is a more consistent Oman Air
Haram, eh? I didn't know the guy was Muslim.
And I don’t think he know what haram really means.
Frankly, I don't care. Businesses advertise and businesses take shots at each other.
Having a slow day?
Yet you clicked, read, and posted: all being the opposite of "not caring."
Strange.
hopefully this will push Qatar to improve its soft product. While I haven't had issues on the service end in the air, the wine and catering lately has much to be desired. They have gone the way of American Airlines, and iM hoping this will help reverse course. In addition, the ground experience, is at best chaotic,
The shade, the shade of it all!
This is why I simply have a love hate relationship with Qatar Airways. I’ve taken Qatar in the past (2019/2020). I thought the hard product was okay, and the soft product to be adequate! Furthermore, Qatar delivers a good soft product with delicious food, proactive staff, and overall cleanliness consistently. The issue I have with Qatar is simply how shady the company can be. It’s clear that the only thing Qatar cares about is grabbing...
This is why I simply have a love hate relationship with Qatar Airways. I’ve taken Qatar in the past (2019/2020). I thought the hard product was okay, and the soft product to be adequate! Furthermore, Qatar delivers a good soft product with delicious food, proactive staff, and overall cleanliness consistently. The issue I have with Qatar is simply how shady the company can be. It’s clear that the only thing Qatar cares about is grabbing positive attention. They do that by parading their accolades and making people “fall in love” with the airline. They also want to sweep negativity under the rug (most evident in Josh Cahill’s “negative” video on Qatar’s decline). These shady practices are all done for attention and likely either for profit and/or to get people to actually visit the country. To me, I don’t like these shady practices, and again I still think Qatar is a decent airline, but they are simply not the world’s best, and let’s be real, the ad saying that “Qatar is the best for a reason” is all because they pay Skytrax a ton of money to get that award.
Agreed. I've never really felt that QR soft product was that good. In my experience, their FAs are always overwhelmed and seem way too busy due to their service flow.
Their hard product is great most of the time, but that's because it also needs to be, you're often flying 12+ hours to DOH and then connecting for another medium to longhaul segment.
Like yes, the nice plating and dinner candle have a soft product...
Agreed. I've never really felt that QR soft product was that good. In my experience, their FAs are always overwhelmed and seem way too busy due to their service flow.
Their hard product is great most of the time, but that's because it also needs to be, you're often flying 12+ hours to DOH and then connecting for another medium to longhaul segment.
Like yes, the nice plating and dinner candle have a soft product element, but beyond that, I've never found their FAs to be particularly above and beyond in the same way I find Taiwanese and Japanese carriers.
There's a clear cut below in terms of QR and the top tier service in the world.
Oddly Enough ive never had a good experience onboard premium cabins onboard JL and NL. But I also have a bit more melanin in my skin
In economy, at least a few years ago, I found the soft product to be adequate, but not stellar and certainly not the “world’s best.” The food portions look smaller than other carriers (Emirates, ANA, JAL, Korean Air, and Asiana all have bigger portions, albeit that could be a cultural thing), but they’re usually tasty. Personally, Qatar offers a consistently adequate product in economy, but just not cutting edge. Sure the business class product might...
In economy, at least a few years ago, I found the soft product to be adequate, but not stellar and certainly not the “world’s best.” The food portions look smaller than other carriers (Emirates, ANA, JAL, Korean Air, and Asiana all have bigger portions, albeit that could be a cultural thing), but they’re usually tasty. Personally, Qatar offers a consistently adequate product in economy, but just not cutting edge. Sure the business class product might be absolutely incredible but that’s for a significant minority of all travelers. Most will be in economy and Qatar’s economy product is not nearly as good as other airlines like ANA. The crews I’ve heard have been overworked at Qatar, and I’ll be honest ANA’s crew is miles ahead of Qatar because the crews are just so happy and clearly love their jobs, which makes me so happy!
The issues I have with Qatar other than their shadiness comes down to two things:
1. Qatar’s Hard Product is inconsistent. One plane has a state of the art economy class cabin with large screens and whatnot, while another plane has an overly outdated product that doesn’t meet today’s standards. There are a lot of airlines that, while potentially inconsistent, have products where the “worst” product is better than Qatar’s “worst” product in economy (EVA Air, Singapore Airlines, even Delta on their long haul fleet), and many carriers now have mostly consistent products that are good enough (like Starlux, KLM, China Airlines, etc.). This is also most problematic for Business class, where you could be hit with a 2-2-2 configured business class when you were expecting QSuites! This is probably the biggest issue of the airline minus their shady practices.
2. Hamad Airport is simply overrated. Now I will say that Hamad airport was used as a layover for a flight to Singapore, but personally, Hamad airport is just not my favorite. The immigration was slow, one of the staff members was rude, and while I know there are other airports that have double security checks, I don’t like the double security check and I also didn’t like being contained in a cramped glass box. Compared to Changi, Hamad looks boring (minus the architecture).
Basically, my main point is that Qatar Airways is good but not incredible and probably not 5 stars (in economy at least).
I mean, who's gonna decide or not decide to fly Qatar or Riyadh because of this whole thing.
QR L but not even close to a big deal.
The girls are fighting! Honestly, it doesn't make QR look good to attack another airline.
How insecure do you have to be to run an ad about an airline that hasn't even operated a single commercial flight yet?
You don't see the other top airlines in the world with a lot of similarly close competition attack each other like that. CI/EVA/JX, ANA/JAL, SQ/CX, etc.
QR should let its product stand on its own. Riyadh will probably not even be that good tbh.
Those are all Asian airlines. It is simply not in Japanese, Taiwanese or Singaporean culture to take subtle digs at a competitor, while it’s very much possible in the West or the Middle East. Heck, I’ll be absolutely shocked if EVA Air comes out with an ad campaign of any kind, let alone one mocking Starlux. I’ve never seen any ad from EVA.
Perhaps then that is a reason they are all top airlines, yeah?
It is funny you said "The girls are fighting!" since it is actually the boys who are fighting.
All this does is give Riyadh air more positive publicity.
What did you say? The world’s best airline felt the need to directly attack you even before you got a plane off the ground? Well that’s something alright!
dog eat dog campaign?
While the intentions of today's post are pretty obvious, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that the other past was an attack on Riyadh. Airlines post this kind of stuff all the time. It was even posted before Riyadh's post!
It would take much more than just Twitter posts to create a serious and effective marketing campaign against Riyadh.
On a completely separate note, seeing Riyadh's British CEO denouncing...
While the intentions of today's post are pretty obvious, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that the other past was an attack on Riyadh. Airlines post this kind of stuff all the time. It was even posted before Riyadh's post!
It would take much more than just Twitter posts to create a serious and effective marketing campaign against Riyadh.
On a completely separate note, seeing Riyadh's British CEO denouncing something as "haram" makes Scott Kirby's sucking up to Trump look like nothing (even if he probably doesn't have much other choice!).
Haram? Does this guy even know what it means or just trying to sound the part in the middle east. Extremely disrespectful. Scammers like this come and treat middle Eastern Muslims like idiots. I hope RA see through this guys lies and appoint somebody else.
This is... really not intelligent. Brands that are new to a space or trying to compete with the established big players will sometimes try marketing campaigns including their brand along with the big dogs so that the consumer will associate with newcomer with the top brands in the space. So congrats Qatar... you just gave free advertising to Riyadh? This just comes across as the CEO is petty and insecure. So weird and completely misguided....
This is... really not intelligent. Brands that are new to a space or trying to compete with the established big players will sometimes try marketing campaigns including their brand along with the big dogs so that the consumer will associate with newcomer with the top brands in the space. So congrats Qatar... you just gave free advertising to Riyadh? This just comes across as the CEO is petty and insecure. So weird and completely misguided. If you really have to throw a temper tantrum then do it in a private way.