Qatar Airways

[Jerry]

Just seen this article in the Times about the Qatar route with the suggestion that Qatar could invest in the airport itself.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cardiff-airport-lands-qatar-long-haul-deal-lq7ldxwbj
Just to warn to access it you might have to register with them for a limited amount of articles a week.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Interesting little video of one man's experience flying in business class on a narrow bodied Qatar Airbus.

A smaller aircraft into CWL might mean an increased frequency but a 787 seems a better experience - according to this man anyway.

 

[Jerry]

Good little video. I had a look at some of the routes that were mentioned and some other routes for their narrow bodies. Nairobi gets 3 A320s a day. Belgrade gets an A321, Helsinki gets an A320, Zagreb gets an A321 and A320, Pisa and Larnaca get an A321 while Moscow gets 2 A321's a day. The longest flight I could find was 6 and a half hours.
Looking at EDI, BHK and MAN they operate the 787 even the first LHR departure is a 787 though the new DUB route is an A350 900.
Personally i'd be surprised if the route was a narrow body. For Wales and the welsh government and the airport this is massive and i think they would want a wide body aircraft and a narrow body may be considered negative. I also think that Qatar wouldn't be launching this route unless they thought they could fill a wide body at least 4 weekly and there is also cargo to consider.
Looking at timings as well if it's to catch the Australia departures and departures to south east asia as well then arriving around 19.00 Doha time so any departure before 10 am would do that.

 

[Jerry]

Nice article in the Bristol Post advertising the new service to Doha for Wales and the South West.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/new-flights-launched-connecting-south-36069

 

[Tinkerman]

Nice video that TLY. I can clearly understand that guys frustrations, and if i paid a high, premium business class fare for that product on that specific aircraft i would be far from pleased. However, this is one of the 'older' QR narrow-bodies so as he said, the newer ones are better. However, i believe in order for this route to be a success, then a 7H30 flight will more than likely need to be on a B787 or equivalent A/C, although if they do intend using A321NEO's for this new CWL service and the others, then due the aircraft being a LR narrow-body, you'd think they'd enhance the product a bit ?

However, i have it on firm authority that A321NEO deliveries are not to begin until 2019 ...

 

[Tinkerman]

One aspect of this service i have neglected until today is the service that CWL can provide as a relatively small airport in contrast to LHR especially and BHX to some extent also.

Most people hate the experience of LHR and other large airports, and if CWL can get the airport service correct (lounges etc) and QR get the on-board service (seating and A/C choice) then the route should be a lot more attractive to a lot more people based on the more personal service CWL can achieve.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Nice article in the Bristol Post advertising the new service to Doha for Wales and the South West.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/new-flights-launched-connecting-south-36069

CWL obviously ensured that their press release reached the Bristol press. The Bristol Post is not proactive and would not have picked up the news otherwise.

 

[Jerry]

CWL obviously ensured that their press release reached the Bristol press. The Bristol Post is not proactive and would not have picked up the news otherwise.

Just quickly checked and it's owned by Trinty Mirror who also own Wales Online so that could be why they posted it. Hopefully they'll be posting more about the route to advertise it. Wales Online sometimes do sponsored articles about the routes from the airport so maybe there will be some in the future about the Qatar route in the Bristol post. It'll be a good way to advertise it.

 

[Jerry]

Wales Online have done an article listing 15 destinations that can be accessed from Cardiff Airport with Qatar.
Beirut, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Salalah, Goa, Kolkata, Bali, Colombo, Ho Chi Minh City, Tehran, Sydney, Auckland, Islamabad and Mumbai are the ones they listed. Some i'm surprised they included. Notable places they missed that will be more accessible from Cardiff with Qatar include Melbourne, Adelaide, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bangkok and Phuket.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/15-places-youll-now-able-12957751

 

[Jerry]

The First Minister Carwyn Jones is heading to Qatar today to meet the Qatar Airways CEO HE Akbar Al Baker and senior officials from Qatar International Islamic Bank, the Qatar Investment authority and Qatar national bank.
Hopefully his visit will lead to Qatari investment into Wales and boost Wales's export market.
http://gov.wales/newsroom/firstmini...s-with-middle-east-reach-new-heights/?lang=en
I've been informed CWL senior management are with him.

 

[Tinkerman]

Could be getting some news on this route this week with Carwyn Jones and Roger Lewis back from their Doha meetings.

From what i've observed on Social Media they look to have achieved a fair amount and met a number of high rank officials at the QRB and at QR themselves.

 

[Jerry]

A good interview with Debra Barber about how Cardiff managed to secure Qatar Airways. The Universities of the area was one of the attractions for Qatar.
https://www.insidermedia.com/inside...d-breaking-and-transformational-qatar-service

 

[Aviador]

Wales Online have done an article listing 15 destinations that can be accessed from Cardiff Airport with Qatar.
Beirut, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Salalah, Goa, Kolkata, Bali, Colombo, Ho Chi Minh City, Tehran, Sydney, Auckland, Islamabad and Mumbai are the ones they listed. Some i'm surprised they included. Notable places they missed that will be more accessible from Cardiff with Qatar include Melbourne, Adelaide, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bangkok and Phuket.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/15-places-youll-now-able-12957751

We can only look on and drool.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A good interview with Debra Barber about how Cardiff managed to secure Qatar Airways. The Universities of the area was one of the attractions for Qatar.
https://www.insidermedia.com/inside...d-breaking-and-transformational-qatar-service

Can't just have been that though as the West Country also has world-class universities at Bristol and Bath.

 

[Jerry]

Can't just have been that though as the West Country also has world-class universities at Bristol and Bath.

No but it would've been just a part of the figures they took to Qatar and I've no doubt they included the excellent universities in Bristol and Bath as well.
From the article it sounds like the airport spent years producing figures and making there case to Qatar to fly from Cardiff.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Some points from that article that stick out:

"We've been looking to develop a freight operation in Cardiff for some time and this agreement will help there as well." This would definitely be high on QR's list of needs. There's no freight operation in the whole Southwest and Wales Aviation.

"We've also been able to share a great deal with them about our area that has convinced them."
Sounds like Tourism Wales, the Business community and the WG have worked very closely with CWL on this.

"We have plans for our terminal and have already made a number of improvements in recent years," she said. "We're now looking at what works needs to be done before this service starts.
There's probably been some big commitments made to the Terminal improvements. I guess that whatever those improvements were, they were always on the list of things to do. But with an Airport that still isn't making a decent return it would prove difficult to justify.

I think this is all part of a much wider plan than just a new route to CWL. I do wonder if BRS would have had that kind of support from various different communities in the Southwest and of course, the government.

 

[Jerry]

I think this is all part of a much wider plan than just a new route to CWL. I do wonder if BRS would have had that kind of support from various different communities in the Southwest and of course, the government.

It sounds like they've sold the airport and the area to the Qatari government and Qatar Airways as an investment into Wales and as a partnership with the airport and that Qatar could help leave a legacy in the area. Kind of like what Sheikh Mansour has done with Manchester City and the area around it. I've no doubt there will be investment into the area in various projects like the Metro and maybe in the airport itself. Qatar Airways themselves do have investments in IAG and LATAM and Heathrow so may be looking at airports to invest in.
As for infrastructure CWL will always need to attract the airlines first before they can invest. It'll be interesting to see what they upgrade and what Qatar wants for there customers.

 

[Jerry]

On another forum a poster has said that the Qatar Airways flight were mentioned during First Ministers question time. Carwyn Jones the First Minister himself in response to a question by Andrew RT Davies about spending taxpayers money on projects like the Circuit of Wales has said the flights will be daily and that after going out there himself there were huge opportunities for Wales. Hopefully for him when the flights are released they will be!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As I posted recently my opinion for what's it's worth is that the support of the Welsh Government played a huge part in getting this service.

Some points from that article that stick out:

"We've been looking to develop a freight operation in Cardiff for some time and this agreement will help there as well." This would definitely be high on QR's list of needs. There's no freight operation in the whole Southwest and Wales Aviation.

"We've also been able to share a great deal with them about our area that has convinced them."
Sounds like Tourism Wales, the Business community and the WG have worked very closely with CWL on this.

"We have plans for our terminal and have already made a number of improvements in recent years," she said. "We're now looking at what works needs to be done before this service starts.
There's probably been some big commitments made to the Terminal improvements. I guess that whatever those improvements were, they were always on the list of things to do. But with an Airport that still isn't making a decent return it would prove difficult to justify.

I think this is all part of a much wider plan than just a new route to CWL. I do wonder if BRS would have had that kind of support from various different communities in the Southwest and of course, the government.

I posted this in another thread on F4A earlier this week.

My own view for what it's worth is that the Welsh Government's backing was crucial. The WG is in a position to facilitate all sorts of trade agreements/partnerships between Qatar and Wales, with the councils in the West of England and the forthcoming West of England Metro region mayor having very little impact when it comes to promoting similar initiatives for the West Country - they haven't got the WG's budget for starters.

So we seem to be on the same wavelength with this.

 

[Tinkerman]

A daily service would be an even larger coup for CWL, especially if the B787 will be used on those flights.

I am beginning to think the aircraft used will be the B787 due to the airport continually harping on about the freight opportunities that QR will bring to the airport. The narrow-bodies will not have this freight potential, once again pointing to a B787. The hard part for CWL is to then fill the B787 which may be daily according to CJ in FMQ's yesterday, that's a lot of seats per day, and a lot of freight too.

Interestingly though, there's a huge amount of Welsh originating freight that heads down the M4 to LHR everyday of the week by the truckload, so if QR can capture this ready market which they should, and bring in further cargo business then they should fill a daily B787 cargo-wise pretty easily. The harder part will be the passengers, in particular the business cabin which is pretty pricey.

However, given the figures of those using LHR for destinations which QR has (Approximately 1 Million) from CWL's LH catchment, then converting roughly 10-15% of these to use QR from CWL should be a pretty simple task. Perhaps that's why QR believe the service will succeed ? There's clear logic as to why they've launched this, and given the focus on freight, there is also clear logic as to why they've chosen to use CWL over BRS. A fully-laden B787 with Cargo and PAX from BRS will not be possible from what i hear, so there is definitely logic to the CWL operation, coupled with the highly supportive airport who are working wonders.