QATAR AIRWAYS RAKES IN MORE AWARDS
(Posted 22nd April 2015)
Following recent awards from Qatar Airways’ increasingly important China market – the airline only just bagged awards from several leading Chinese magazines like the 2014 Best Airline Service Award by Travel & Leisure, the 2014 Best Airline of the Year by MICE, the 2014 Best Middle Eastern Airline by Business Traveller China and the 2014 Best Airline by National Geographic – did two more recognitions for service excellence come Qatar Airways’ way.
The airline was voted Best Middle Eastern Airline Servicing China at the 8th Annual TTG China Travel Awards held in Shanghai which in fact marks the fourth time the Doha-based carrier has received this accolade from TTG China.
The award was given in recognition of Qatar Airways’ continued efforts in providing five-star hospitality for its customers and in setting the standard for on-board comfort and service. Other aspects considered include the extensive network that the airline serves and its innovative marketing and advertising programmes.
Since 2008, the TTG China Travel Awards has been honouring the best of Greater China’s travel industry. Recipients are from all segments of the industry from airlines, to hotels and resorts and other travel service segments. This year’s award winners were nominated by readers of TTG China, TTG-BT MICE China, TTG Asia, TTG India, TTG Asia Luxury and TTG associations via an online and print voting system.
Qatar Airways’ Group Chief Executive Mr. Akbar Al Baker said when learning about the good news: ‘We are very pleased to be receiving this award for the fourth time. We have a great product and we are glad our fellow professionals in the travel industry recognise our efforts in providing an unforgettable in-flight experience with our five-star service. We would also like to thank our loyal China-based travel partners for their vote of confidence’.
Besides the TTG China Travel Awards, frequent fliers also voted Qatar Airways as the Airline to Look Out For by Frequent Fliers at the 3rd Flyer Award Ceremony organised by Flyertea held on 15 April. To complete the hat-trick of award wins, Qatar Airways Group also received Best New Airport for Hamad International Airport by Top Travel, a monthly magazine dedicated to Chinese outbound tourism.
Qatar Airways Country Manager for North China, Jonathan Zhang was quoted to have said in response to the airline raking in yet more awards: ‘2014 was a remarkable year for Qatar Airways Group. We moved to our new home – the state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport, and welcomed our first Airbus A380 and Airbus A350 into the Qatar Airways’ family. All these new additions have served to keep us ahead of the curve. Besides getting to experience the latest in the aviation world when flying with us, we take pride in offering our passengers best-in-class hospitality whenever they fly with us and we are delighted that our efforts have paid off’.
Only a few days ago did the airline, now in its 18th year, announce the increase in frequencies to a number of destinations, made possible by the delivery of yet more state of the art aircraft, bringing the fleet to 152 Airbus and Boeing planes serving 146 destinations around the world in a growing network.
In Eastern Africa does the airline serve Entebbe combined with Kigali on a daily basis, flies twice a day to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, one of the flights routing via Kilimanjaro and will shortly launch Zanzibar as their 6th destination in the region. It was the latter announcement which rattled the tourism industry stakeholders in Kenya which for long have been waiting to see Qatar Airways launch a service into Mombasa but plans for that were scuttled two years ago when the Kenyan aviation authorities did not live up to verbal assurances given vis a vis fifth freedom traffic rights, prompting Qatar Airways to give Kenya’s coastal city a miss until now.
In January did the airline’s Group CEO Mr. Akbar Al Baker however respond to a question by this correspondent, affirming continued interest to add Mombasa to the network, but clearly with the understanding that the traffic right issue must be resolved first to make the flights financially viable.
