Full throttle for Qatar Airways

Airline bullish on NZ despite regional air space restrictions

Qatar Airways says the blockade imposed by some of its neighbours has not dented performance of its non-stop Auckland-Doha service.

The airline has been flying what is the world’s longest daily flight since February but operations near its home base have been disrupted by air space restrictions imposed by neighbours in early June as a part of a deep diplomatic rift.

While one analyst says the actions could eat into Qatar Airways’ revenue, the airline is bullish about operations in this country and its global network.

Adam Radwanski, Qatar’s senior manager for Australasia, said the impact of the airspace restrictions to the New Zealand business had been negligible.

“With the exception of flights to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Kingdom of Bahrain, our remaining operations to and from our Doha hub continue to run smoothly, with the vast majority of flights operating as scheduled.”

He said the performance of the Auckland route had exceeded expectations.

“Demand for the premium cabin is particularly strong among Kiwi travellers.”

To help break in to the New Zealand market the airline has from May to September been offering all passengers four to five-star hotels for a night in Doha, depending on which cabin they travelled in.

The blockade had not affected punctuality of the New Zealand service, which uses Boeing 777-200 aircraft that can take more than 17 hours to get to Doha.

“While it is very much business as usual for us in New Zealand, we have gone the extra mile to communicate with our trade partners, customers and members of the public to assure them their flights with us will go on as per usual,” said Radwanski.

Airlines, including Qatar, will start releasing ‘‘early bird” special fares for the Christmas period from August to October.

A search of Google Flights shows Qatar has fares already among the lowest for around Christmas.

Radwanski said New Zealandbased customers could look forward to some more “unique” offers.

Executive general manager at helloworld, Simon McKearney, said Qatar had established itself in New Zealand with an Auckland office which made it easier for agents to work with it and had helped push even more Europe-bound traffic through the Middle East.

Competitive fares, from an airline recently named Skytrax Airline of the Year, had stimulated demand for Qatar.

‘‘Combined with the quality and price it’s certainly driving New Zealand consumers.”

At the same time, rival Emirates had also adjusted fares and was also benefiting from its support of Team New Zealand with a spike in bookings, said McKearney.

“There is definitely an interest being re-sparked in Emirates. The advertising dollars pumped in there are definitely seeing an impact for Kiwis post America’s Cup.

“We’ve seen more people going that way [through the Middle East] to Europe rather than Asia or the United States.”

A report by Bloomberg says while Qatar Airways is well backed by a US$335 billion ($452b) sovereign wealth fund and continues its aggressive growth, the air space restrictions were keeping it out of lucrative regional routes.

The airline reported a 10 per cent increase in revenue to nearly US$11 billion for the last financial year but consulting firm Frost & Sullivan says the blockade could cost the airline 30 per cent of this in the current year.