London. Qatar Airways’ progress in the last year, even by its standards, has been rapid, with 17 new routes including Chongqing and Perth (Australia’s mining capital), plus Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. The carrier’s geographical position means it can operate riskier routes like Iraq with ease, as short hops mean it does not have to
accommodate crews, something that European carriers must take into consideration. This autumn, it adds Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, now open to outside investment. Emirates is similarly expansionist, with 14 new routes planned for this year, although only Ho Chi Minh City, Erbil and perhaps Adelaide are of relevance to UK buyers.
One Middle East carrier that will
have more to shout about than usual is Royal Jordanian, whose base at Amman airport is the latest to have a Sir Norman Foster-designed extension. Amman’s new terminal will increase its existing capacity to 12 million and give the Oneworld member, which has been adding to its fleet, scope for expansion.
C M Y CM MY CY BUSINESS TRAVEL’S WISHLIST CMY K
GRAEME MILNE UK general manager,
Corporate Traveller “South America has always been a weak spot from the UK, particularly Brazil. Rio and Sao Paulo need more flights – Rio must be the only major city in the world that does not have a daily flight. Also, South African Airways has pulled its Cape Town flight and Africa seems to be a market that is shrinking. That could have an effect in future. “We work a lot with
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Middle East carriers to China and that will grow. If you’re based up north, everyone is used to going
via Europe now, so changing aircraft in the Middle East doesn’t make any difference.”
DEREK BARLOW Director of supplier relations and industry affairs,
Wings Travel Management “Being in oil and gas we have people travelling from all over the UK, so direct routes to weird and wonderful places are not such a big issue for us because we can’t expect them from regional airports. “For us, Heathrow is really
more of a capacity issue. We need the south-east airports not to be running at full capacity all the
time so that we don’t have delayed connections when something goes wrong or when it snows.”
RICHARD JARVIS Business services manager,
Business Travel Direct “The sort of places our clients go to in any significant numbers would be Kansas City or Albuquerque. Realistically, direct services will never happen here because the hub-and-spoke system suits airlines in the States. It’s becoming more popular in Europe too. “The other part of the jigsaw is the leisure market,
because for an airline to start a new route, it needs a mix of business and economy. I would have thought airlines would be looking at Manila, because there are now a lot of call centres there. I think BA has looked at it in the past but thought it didn’t have that business/leisure mix. “Other places would be Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, which BA used to fly to. BA is resuming the Sri Lanka route next year. It has potential – a big clothing industry, a business and leisure destination, and can be linked with the Maldives.”