NEW RECORD PROFITS FOR QATAR AIRWAYS – THE FIVE STAR AIRLINE
(Posted 11th June 2017)
In a year when Qatar Airways will celebrate 20 years in the skies across the world did the pedigree of the world’s first five star airline show again, as the carrier just announced a rise of profitability by 21.7 percent compared to the previous year. Under the stewardship of Group CEO Akbar Al Baker has the airline grown in leaps and bounds, became a truly global carrier and in recent years celebrated many global aviation firsts, among them being worldwide launch customers of the Airbus A350XWB and offering the longest commercial flight in the world from Doha to New Zealand. No wonder did he make the announcement with a large and justified degree of pride when earlier today he said:
‘Our annual results once again reflect the success of our expansion and growth strategy that has seen the Qatar Airways Group grow from a small regional airline into an aviation powerhouse over the last two decades. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary in the industry, I am proud to share our annual results with the world so that they can see how far we have come as an airline group and how our dedicated team of more than 43,000 employees have worked together to make Qatar Airways the huge success it is today‘.While revenues for Qatar Airways rose in the last financial year by 10.4 percent did profits rise by 21.7 percent year on year, to a large part supported by another major network expansion with ten new destinations including Adelaide, Atlanta, Auckland, Helsinki, Mahe / Seychelles and Windhoek / Namibia. For next year will Qatar Airways launch a record 24 new destinations, including San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and notably Mombasa.
In order to support this ambitious growth strategy, the airline continues to expand its fleet, which as of 31st of March this year boasted a total of 196 aircraft including 7 Airbus A380s, 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 16 Airbus A350s. Showing its ongoing commitment to this evolution of its fleet, the airline also announced an historic agreement with Boeing in October 2016, to purchase up to 100 aircraft comprising 30 firm 787-9s and 10 firm 777-300ERs with a letter of intent to purchase up to a further 60 B737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Continuing to spearhead innovation in the aviation industry, Qatar Airways revealed its revolutionary new First in Business seat concept, Qsuite, at ITB Berlin in March 2017. The patented design brings a new level of comfort and privacy to the premium class passenger experience with its fully customisable suites that allow parties of two, three or four to create their own unique space within the Business Class cabin.
Qatar Airways’ success relies on the support of its home and hub, Hamad International Airport, which was opened in 2014 and now processes more than 38 million passengers a year. As a testament to its design and efficiency, the state-of-the-art airport was classified as a Five-Star airport by Skytrax at its 2017 World Airport Awards, becoming the first ever Middle East airport to achieve this honour.
In regard of recent aviation developments in the Gulf (https://atcnews.org/2017/06/07/qatar-airways-leaves-no-stone-unturned-in-dealing-with-the-gcc-inflicted-aviation-crisis/)
has the airline responded with unprecedented speed to reduce any inconvenience for their passengers who remain loyal to their carrier of choice. That happened even though active decampaigning of QR by the airlines of countries participating in the closure of airspaces for Qatar Airways has been noticed around the world including in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Multiple reports suggest that those airline’s sales staff are attempting to use the airspace closures to syphon of market share and portray Qatar Airways in a negative light. This however is bound to fail as neither safety nor services, on the ground and in the air, have been affected for passengers, other than now routing inbound and outbound flights from HIA through Iranian airspace. While connectivity to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and notably Egypt have been affected have none of the other global destinations been impacted by the GCC’s decisions which have drawn and continue to draw massive critique for using the aviation industry as a punching bag to accomplish political goals.
Read the full profit statements via the following links:
Qatar Airways Consolidated Financial Statement
Qatar Airways Group Annual Report Fiscal 2017
