Qatar Airways Will Launch Low Cost Airline - GLG News
Summary
Qatar Airways will have no alternative but to establish a low cost off-shoot if it wants to ensure that the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain do not divert leisure traffic away from its small Doha hub.
Analysis
Between the major cities the GCC nations, Doha may rank alongside Dubai and Abu Dhabi as a business center, but its tourist appeal is about as exciting as having to watch paint dry.
The Qatari nation lacks innovation and leisure offerings that the UAE and Bahrain offer and the spate of explosive low cost airline growth led by stalwart Air Arabia will force Qatar Airways into moving into this seemingly crowded arena.
Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al-Baker claims that it’ll only be launched if revenues are hit – to be honest that’s probably happening already and is unlikely to admit that plans for the low cost airline have been slow to emerge into a competitive reality, much to the delight of the existing low cost airlines in the GCC.
The real challenge will not be price, product or even destinations that an eventual Qatar Airways low cost brand would serve – the test would be drawing in traffic to Doha. The UAE already benefits from Air Arabia in Sharjah and FlyDubai in Dubai, but the lure of Doha in its present form ceases to exist. It may work for some transfer traffic, but no amount of “low cost” ops will yield benefits if volumes are not attracted.
And with FlyDubai poised to overtake everyone in the region, the longer Qatar Airways takes to get its low cost airline airborne, the harder it’ll be for them to compete, let alone make it a success.
the chief has a plan, he will "curfew" the LCC's, they won't give them evian, pillows or blankets, LCC's are banned from marrying for 5 years after first landing in doha. No more than 3 days off for LCC's.
If only qr had a real ceo...