Manchester is confirmed for 4x weekly non-stop A300-600R service. Though I don't know the exact date but it is supposed to be within the next 6 months. Like FRA and MXP two flights will be daytime and depart DOH at around noon and two other flights will depart Doha at night. That way they can have connections to most of the Gulf and Asia.
IMO QR should use the additional leased in capacity to concentrate on adding frequencies to Asia Pacific which as you know the flights to BKK, MNL, KUL and CGK have high passenger figures, and possibly start HKG or SIN. KUL was supposed to go daily from the begining of summer but it didn't and since the flight leaves 100% full almost every flight and the flight has excellent O&D figures they are loosing a lot of revenue by not increasing frequencies.
I am interested in knowing more about the leased in A330-200. After looking at stats of the EI A330-200 I have realised that they have 31" in Y class as opposed to 32" on QR but Business Class standards are good. So this A330-200 is more suitable for shorter routes than a long DOH-KUL-SYD/MEL routing because it has a more cramped seting configuration in Y class. Also if QR wet-lease the A330-200 what will they do with the EI logo's in the aircraft (seats, life jacket, safety cards etc...) and what about the colours of the seats and the livery of the aircraft it will be inconsistant with the remainder of the fleet and project an unprofessional image. The best bet for them is to wait for the next A330-200 coming in 1Q 2003 which will be sufficient to start 3x weekly flights to Australia through KUL. They should also learn from GF, one of the reasons GF pulled out is because of the low yeilds and to make a low-yeild route work it should not have first class but instead have a 2 class layout which should mean extra seats in Y to lower the CASM, in turn lowering the break even point.
Last edited by MTQatar; 24th August 2002 at 23:58.