(eTN) – Qatar Airways has announced that once they receive their long-awaited Airbus A380, the first destination to be served with the giant aircraft will be London Heathrow, later to be followed by Paris CDG.
The aircraft will be configured in a three-class cabin layout, featuring First, Business, and Economy in what will arguably be the best and most comfortable design of its kind. It is understood that the First Class Suites will rival those of QR’s nearest competitors, if not outdo them, while both Business and Economy will put to shame the crammed environment many other airlines using the A380 subject their passengers to.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is stepping up the deployment of the B787, as more of the aircraft are joining their fleet.
Qatar Airways is presently flying daily to Entebbe and on to Kigali, once a day to Kilimanjaro, and serves Nairobi and Dar es Salaam double daily with an Airbus A320. Said one of their staff when asked to comment on the comparison with the wide-body aircraft used by their closest competitors: “The flight to Doha is just about 5 hours. The A320 are state-of-the-art aircraft with inflight connectivity and inflight entertainment. Our catering on board is first class, or we would not be a 5-star airline.
“Turkish comes here with a B737-800 or in some cases the B737-900, Etihad comes to Nairobi with an A320, too, so this strategy to open up markets is proven. The use of a smaller aircraft also allows for a second daily frequency to airports with some more demand, which gives greater flexibility to our passengers.
“The announcement 3 weeks ago of a partnership with Fly 540 also expands our reach in Kenya and the region, because we can now serve passengers from beyond Nairobi or other main airports to which we fly. And we have no complaints about the type of aircraft we operate from East Africa to Doha, and from there our wide-body aircraft take passengers to their final destination across the globe. We are also still the only Gulf carrier operating the new B787 Dreamliner,” said a staff member of the airline on condition of anonymity for not being the official spokesperson for the carrier in the region.
The new Doha International Airport which is due to open later this year, has, according to earlier information received from the airline – which also operates the airport, been purpose built to cater to the Airbus A380. The combination of a brand-new mega airport and a fleet of brand-new mega planes will undoubtedly raise the profile of QR even further across Eastern Africa.
