General Update - Middle East - Qr / Bmi / Others

[A300Man]

A few points to update here on Pprune relative to Middle East biz:-


1) bmi British Midland will commence flying to Dubai from Heathrow in October 2003. Utilising A330 Airbus equipment;

2) QR are naturally a bit peeved at this, given that the new route will directly impact QR's services from MAN and LHR to DXB via Doha. (QR and BD were traditionally good interlining buddies up until recently)

3) Emirates will be the main sponsor of the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany and have reportedly paid some £24million for the privilege!! Nice to see that someone has money to burn!

4) easyJet (of all people) are also currently carrying out feasibility studies into operating long haul services from UK and Europe (Geneva and Paris) to the Middle East. The carrier is reportedly looking at launching "easyBizJet" which may focus on high yield, low load and premium quality services to destinations such as Dubai, Riyadh and Muscat utilising A319CJ's!! (I seem to recall another MiddleEastern airline trying to do the same thing, without much success - QR)

5) Qatar Airways to join Star Alliance in June 2004???????? This news is hot and apparently accurate!

A300Man

[HF-in-Doha]

Thanks for the update A300Man.

I am quite surprised at BMI's decision to fly to DXB from LHR, the market is getting saturated with BA flying twice a day, EK 3 times daily, Royal Brunei 4x weekly and Biman daily. Not adding of course all the airlines where you could connect through such as LH, KL, AZ, GF and of course QR.

If they want the route to work they should try to interline into Asia and DXB is good hub for that.

"5) Qatar Airways to join Star Alliance in June 2004???????? This news is hot and apparently accurate!"

There has been talk of this for sometime, even Al-Baker in interviews dating back to the day the MUC route was started in 1998 said that QR are hoping to enter Star Alliance once they get to a certain size. Do you happen to know if the auditors from Star visited already? and did LH sort everything out with the previous audit?

"(I seem to recall another MiddleEastern airline trying to do the same thing, without much success - QR)"

Are you sure, QR hasn't put the A319CJ into scheduled service yet. Technically the aircraft belongs to the Amiri flight and only does occasional charters. Another A319CJ (LR) is coming in May, it is registered A7-CJA and will be configured with 108 seats. It will be flying to Tripoli and Moscow from July with thrice weekly flights to each destination.

On the subject of Alliances. Does anyone know what happened with Gulf Air. They were supposed to anounce there alliance choice "early 2003" and were supposedly joining star according to flight international. I am sure QR and GF wouldn't want to be in the same position as TG and SQ. Having to share the same alliance and the same home turf.

[Dispatchguy]

A300Man,

You seem to be quite well informed about eberything around QR/DOH. Can you please confirm/comment info on QR starting flights to MOW on A319CJ???
Are those regular scheduled flights or just seasonal charters???

//Dispatchguy

[HF-in-Doha]

Dispatchguy,

Flights start July 9 and are confirmed, bookable and will be year round.

QR868 every Wednesday and Friday
Depart DOH: 0740
Arrive MOW: 1350

QR866 every Monday
Depart DOH: 1110
Arrive MOW: 1720

QR869 every Wednesday and Friday
Depart MOW: 1450
Arrive DOH: 1850

QR867 every Monday
Depart MOW: 1820
Arrive DOH: 2220

Qatar Airways will start Doha - Shagnhai - Seoul from June 25. Tripoli from July 17, Rome from June 16, Aden from May 16. Addis Ababa, Lagos, Zurich, Madrid and Salalah will all be included into the route network within the next year.

[Dispatchguy]

Thanks for clarifying HF-in-DOH.

Seen QR advertising for positions in SHA etc on their web site, but not a single word about possible future vacancies for MOW. By the way has anyone seen any russian speaking cabin crew with QR???

//Dispatchguy

[Mister Geezer]

The news of bmi starting LHR-DXB seems to be their contingency plan if they could not get trans-atlantic slots from LHR. bmi did say some time ago that they would look at the Middle East if they did not get their USA slots ex LHR.