Qatar Airways to Double it's USA Market

[A300Man]

Following delivery of it's 787's, QR will double it's North American route network, by adding four new destinations to the current three:

Boston
Atlanta
Chicago
Detroit

They will also seek to expand in Canada, although this is anticipated to be a troubled notion for obvious reasons!

Source: Akbar al Baker interview with Bloomberg.

Qatar Airways to Serve Atlanta, Chicago as 787 Deliveries Begin - Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-13/qatar-airways-to-serve-atlanta-chicago-as-787-deliveries-begin.html)

[BDD]

Great news!!!! More ways to get home.

[mutt]

They are going to serve these routes with 787's? This will be interesting, Boeing showed us that the aircraft cannot go direct with a full payload, so I wonder that the aircraft capacity will be.

Mutt

[glofish]

Has Akbar ever cared about payload or profitability?

Nahh, just about gloating and to show off to other ME carriers,
so - they will do it, even with a cabin half full .

Great to get home, as mentioned? Don't think so. Plenty of space
but payload restricted.

[Iver]

Great news! :D See, I am telling you that the 787 fleet is going to be a great fleet at QR going foward. With 60 787s (including options) on the way, you have a wide variety of potential destinations - both shorthaul and longhaul. Add the advanced flight technology to the varied destinations for the 787 and it should be a pretty interesting fleet to be on. Let's hope they release more potential 787 routes in the next few months (I realise LHR was already announced).

I am surprised too about the North American destinations (at least Chicago and Detroit). I thought Al Baker had mentioned that, although the 787-8s clearly had the range, there was something about the weight of the aircraft (or maybe limited cargo capacity?) that made those flights less likely. Not sure exactly what he said but I thought it would be used more on shorter-range European, African and Asian routes. Detroit and Chicago do not surprise me with their large Arab populations - I believe Royal Jordanian serves Detroit with an A340. This move with more flights to the States should make a number of US legacy carriers nervous given Qatar's Middle East, Indian and other South Asian connections...

Well, with 60 potential aircraft, you could see those 787s in many interesting destinations (including long, thin routes with no direct links to the Middle East, etc.). Let's hope for Las Vegas next! :cool::p:}

[salamalikum2]

"Seek to expand in Canada..."
Wish him all the best..!:hmm:

[Ninja chauffeur]

Let's first try to find at least 2 full crews for the 2 first dreamliners...
They are losing crew faster than they can train new ones. 4 A320 already parked, 3 Houston's cancelled on the B777 in 1 month time.

Oh it's gonna be an interesting next 6 months, that's for sure.. Let's try to survive 2012 first, then we'll talk about the 60 B787's shall we?

[Chuck Noris]

The article never said that the 787 will be use for those destination. It said that we are waiting for the deliveries of the 787 to start the operation in those city.

In other words when we have the 787, it will relieve some of the 777 to do those flight.

[The Ticketor]

In my opinion, the most interesting part is this:

"A daily New York service will also be increased to three flights a day, with the addition of links via cities in Eastern and Western Europe"

What exactly are those European links? Very interesting.

[safelife]

That's what EK did last some years ago. New York via Hamburg, with A340.
With full cabotage rights (sold DXB-HAM, DXB-JFK, HAM-JFK).

[Iver]

This is pure speculation. If you operate a daily flight like Doha-Chicago, you probably need a minimum of 2-2.5 airplanes to support that route. The extra .5 relates to a standby aircraft available for multiple routes or to cover for maintenance. I believe Emirates uses that formula of 2.5 A380s to support a single daily flight (i.e., Dubai-JFK).

So, if QR order (only) 60 787s, the total number of destinations for daily flights would likely be fewer than 30 destinations. You could assume that a few 787s could fly regional Gulf or India flights to increase utilization rates and that could increase the number of total 787 destinations - turns to Saudi, Kuwait, Muscat, Dubai, Abu Dhabi could be accomplished before longerhaul flights to other continents. Still the fleet of 60 787s could easily support 20-25 separate destinations on a daily basis (flights operating to and from the origin and destination). Operating 787s on non-daily flights (maybe a 3X weekly to one destination and 4X weekly to another) could also increase the number of potential destinations. This is all hypothetical. :}

Given the 787's range and performance capabilities, it should be interesting to see how and where the aircraft is deployed by QR. Sounds like Al Baker is pretty aggressive and he wants his "Goat" brand and fancy aircraft out in the world to promote his fast-growing and modern country.

[salamalikum2]

IMHO the FIRST think we do need is a fast growing and modern airport to support this expansion!

[spearomic]

if it opens in 12/12/12 why operational in 2021? ... oh ok it was a joke... sorry I was late there for a minute...

[salamalikum2]

A conversation i caught recently between 2 passengers boarding the flight at doha airport:
Quote;
"They try to attract a lot of passengers with all their airplanes they have but the airport is not adequate at all!".

[THR MCT]

Forget all about a new airport and the B787:ugh:
What is needed right now is a state of the art and fast modern growing

Ssssssssssalary................$$$$$$$$$$:ok: