Business News
Qatar Airways has taken off at Birmingham Airport
By Phil Parkin
Greece and Spain will readily remember what it was like - the great weather, the very reasonably priced drinks, endless days on the beach, eating al fresco, and so on. But those same people will no
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doubt also remember the huge queues to check-in at the airline, there and back - and how long it took to shuffle your luggage up the desk, inch-by-inch. It may still be like that with some
airlines – but not Qatar Airways, where the goal is to check passengers in within 12 minutes (subject to the odd operational breakdown). Twelve minutes – luxury. According to Qatar’s Birmingham-based leisure account manager Dean Sheriff, it’s (not surprisingly) something that goes down very well with passengers. “It’s one of those things where
we get a lot of feedback,” he said. In fact, rapid processing at the
nyone who used to go on their annual summer holidays to places like
QATAR AIRWAYS FACT FILE:
• Qatar was the global launch customer of the Airbus A350-1000, the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft;
• The airline is a member of Oneworld, which brings together 13 airlines serving more than 1,000 destinations;
• Qatar’s business class ‘Qsuite’ offers 4,000 entertainment options, and includes a 21.5 inch widescreen TV. There’s also a double bed in each suite;
• Qatar’s Doha hub is Hamad International Airport, which features more than 90 designer boutiques and high-end stores. It’s only the sixth airport in the world to receive a five-star Skytrax rating;
• Qatar’s A350 aircraft has 36 seats in business class and 247 in economy. The cabin has advanced air conditioning and full LED mood lighting. Business class even has electromechanical window shades;
• The A350 uses new Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines, which produce 25 per cent less CO2 emissions per passenger than other current generation aircraft. The plane’s carbon fibre plastic fuselage also reduces fuel consumption.
check-in is just one thing which Qatar excels. Another example is the age of its
fleet – at just four and a half years, it’s one of the youngest in the world and one of the most fuel
efficient as well. And the airline takes delivery of a new aircraft roughly every ten working days. Qatar has been flying to Birmingham from its Doha hub since March 2016, where
Out on the tarmac as the A350 is refuelled ready for the return journey to Doha
passengers can travel onwards to some 160 destinations. Just before Christmas, Qatar
began using its Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the Birmingham route, increasing the daily seating capacity from 254 to 283. This was down to seasonal demand, but also another indication of how well the Birmingham flights are doing. There are plans to use the same aircraft during another peak season later this year, between July and August. The airline is also aware that there is going to be a spike in demand in two years’ time, when Birmingham stages the Commonwealth Games, and Qatar hosts the World Cup (it will be the official airline for this tournament). At Birmingham, along with the
rapid check-in, there is a very quick turnaround once the daily flight has landed. The aircraft is scheduled to spend only 75 minutes on the ground, but this can be less – on the day Chamberlink visited the airport, the inbound flight was slightly delayed, and as a result, as soon as the passengers disembarked and the crew left, the relief crew boarded immediately and began their pre-flight checks. At the same time, an army of
Dean Sheriff with Mandy Canny and Gary Birch of the Chamber, during the hectic change round at Birmingham
cleaners descended on the plane, as well as those involved in re- stocking the catering. Outside, the plane was also refuelled – this is a little bit more expensive than it is for the average driver of the average car, but for an airline that is counted as one of the best in the world, it is obviously a worthwhile enterprise.
February 2020 CHAMBERLINK 25
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