JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 83
37 A350-1000s. The Airbus fleet is
completed with eight A380s (two
more on order).
From Boeing it has nine
777-200LRs, 36 777-300ERs (12 more
on order) and 30 787-8 Dreamliners.
Also on order are 30 787-9s, ten
777-8s and 50 777-9s (as well as
purchase rights on an additional
50 777-9Xs. Qatar also has eight
A330-200F freighters (eight more
on order), one 747-8F (one more on
order) and 13 777Fs (three more on
order).
Al Baker has no doubts there
are plenty of destinations to fly
these aircraft to. Despite the Gulf
embargo and other issues, he has been
extremely active over the past year.
In November alone, Qatar
announced an increase in daily
frequencies to the Scandinavian
capitals of Stockholm and Oslo, as
well as the Italian cities of Milan
and Rome. Citing an increase
in demand to key European
destinations, especially from the
Asia Pacific region, flights to Rome,
Milan and Stockholm will increase
to 17 per week from Doha’s Hamad
International Airport, while flights to
Oslo are set to increase from seven to
10 frequencies per week.
Qatar also raised its double daily
flights to Moscow to three times
daily in December and inaugurated
a new flight to the Russian city of St
Petersburg the same month. As well
as these frequency increases it also
recently announced additional daily
non-stop flights to Kiev, Prague,
Warsaw and Helsinki.
Clearly, for al Baker, whatever
issues are seething around his
operations, it’s definitely a case of
business as usual.Never the shrinking violet –
Qatar’s Akbar al Baker.AIRBUS‘It’s definitely
a case of
business as
usual.’