Comments on: Qatar Airways CEO: “Don’t Listen to the Crap My Competitors Are Saying”

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 15:39:32 +0000

“They have the only dedicated first class terminal, which is extremely impressive, though at the fares they charge I’ll never see it.”

Lufthansa has a First Class Terminal at Frankfurt, and were first at that game actually…

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:05:20 +0000

The market between the Middle East and the subcontinent is actually quite large. But Etihad, Qatar and Emirates also have strong traffic to Europe, growing traffic to Asia, a nice chunk to Africa and a growing base to Australia & New Zealand. Emirates also says that it can fly anywhere in the world nonstop (or will be able to soon).

By: charlie

charlie — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 00:48:56 +0000

OK. agreed, the Gulf carriers are eating everyone alive when it comes to subcontinental traffic, but how big is that market? They are certainly limited in flights across the atlantic, and might grab some SE-Asia/Europe traffic, but where else will they expand?

By: TAD

TAD — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:10:40 +0000

I totally agree! US carriers treat passengers like cattle. “Get them in and get them off.” “Restrict this and that.” “Pay extra for this and that.” People when is it going to end? International carriers still focus on service, ON-TIME departures and professionalism. US carriers say that they believe in customer service but if you accept that as the true, I have swamp land to sell you.

I travel over twenty times a year to Europe and Asia and find when I get on a Cathay or Emirates or Singapore flight, I am treated like royalty. Not US carriers. I recently flew Paris with a famous US carrier and found that I was on a US carrier all the way to Paris. Only difference, the Flight Attendant spoke Franch. I took an International carrier from JFK to Hamburg and was treated magnificently. You are right! Look what happened when the US car dealers cut cost. Do we have to do the same with US carriers?

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:38:25 +0000

Interesting read.

“And if Americans can get over their ignorance about the safety of these airlines…. ”

Totally agree. I personally enjoy flying on a lot of the Asian airlines… it is just a flight but the service, kindness and respect from the flight attendants, is just superior. You see this with the service in the hotels over there also. Most of the top 10 hotels in the world ranking are in Asia last time I checked.

But I did have a white knuckle flight once from Singapore to Bangkok in the late 90’s … forgot the airline name (1970’s dingy yellow interior), but they only flew once a day in the late evenings.. cheap but scary..

American airline companies should learn something from the American auto industry. Foreign airlines are going to start taking the chair out from underneath them…

Interesting ABC news video on http://www.yahoo.com right now titled,
“2007 is the worst year yet for flight delays”. It would be interesting to read the results of the research study from MIT.

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:52:10 +0000

Based on what Qatar Airways’ CEO said, we’ll see more flights soon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Houston on their route map in the next 2 years.

By: International Traveler

International Traveler — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:08:05 +0000

Although Qatar is a very good airline, as a frequent Middle-East traveler, I prefer Emirates (EK) because of the on-time departure structure and all around service. The other carriers are very good please don’t misunderstand, but the level of service that EK has is far superior. I can only hope that some day soon the other carriers will arrive to that stage. I would love to make the comparison at that time. I am also looking forward to more flights from the US to the Middle East. I would love to see LAX, ORD, DFW and MIA to name a few cities