Another QR question.

What's happened to the freighter?

It was due to be out of Dresden and ready for work in early June. Then I heard July. Now someone has said August. And what is the operating pattern. CGN have said they are hoping to get it and the UK has been mentioned.

What happened to Freighter
 

Simple answer!

As usual Commercial GM - MSF wants to control the freighter operation and this has run into some dispute with the UK consultants.

As it is MSF does not have a clue to how to run a airline commercial dept, leave alone a freighter. All he knows his dilute yield as much as one can to get the pax at any cost.

Also his favourite is have meetings after meetings - we have about 15 meetings a day - and all have to be minuted... so we spend our valuable time on silly unproductive meetings and taking minutes but not actually focusing on the real day-to-day operations.

Another reason why EK and GF are miles ahead of QR!

The freighter idea came from Stephen Vella in the first place, so I'm surprised he would let MF overrule him. The problem with the guy is that he refuses to admit he knows nothing about cargo and proceeds to interfere. And I've heard about his meetings. They drive everyone mad. I understand his favourite is to ask for opinions on a subject and then proceed to interrupt the speaker before they've made their point. One very unpleasant character.

QR will make an announcement at Paris Air Show next month regarding new purchase. strong rumors from within that it will include both Airbus and Boeing

14 A330s
2 B777-300ER (+8 options)

According to Flight International.

Same old nonsense with the freighter, same old nonsense with MSF, nothing ever seems to change. You are all absolutely correct about him, knows zero about anything, particularly how the cargo industry works.

With all due respect to Stephen Vella, anyone who knows anything about freighters will tell you that a converted A300 is not the best suited for the job (there are better options for many reasons) and some of the routes touted about (particularly in the Indian subcontinent) will have a very difficult time trying to meet the requirements of a freighter. You need to get people onboard who have experience of operating & marketing freighters, not a GM Commercial whose previous experience and current capabilities are questionable to say the least.

Having said that, marketed correctly it could make big money. A high proportion of profits (past & present) of a lot of the big and established carriers are made up of cargo revenues.

MSF.....busy achieving nothing as usual.

GDP per capita is predicted to reach $50000 by 2006 which includes the whole population of Qatar, this is according to a cabinet member. The country should be the richest per capita from next year.

As for the most recent GDP figures (From Qatar Central Bank and Planning Council / Figures rounded):

2002/2003 Gross Domestic Product: US $18.8 billion
Population Estimates: 621,000
Doing the Math: $30,300
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A population of 621000 sounds a little understated - not disputing your arithmetic, but my original point was that you should exclude the significant expatriate population if you want a real GDP per capita and a true sense of the wealth that really exists on this blessed sandbank. There are only around 150000 Qatari nationals in toto, hence my earlier statement - the rest of us are a temporary, disposable commodity in the eyes of the state, as a cursory glance at the the qatar-related threads on pprune would illustrate graphically........We wait for crumbs to drop from the table, but we will never be invited to sit at it.

Sorry - it's far too early in the day to get mystical, and my head hurts.....