LOOKING FOR THE BEST ECONOMY CLASS EXPERIENCE IN THE WORLD? READ ON!
(Posted 26th January 2015)
A recent survey published by SKIFT, incidentally the day after the commercial flight launch of Qatar Airways’ state of the art Airbus A350XWB – more about that later – named the airline’s long haul economy class travel experience as ‘the best in the world’. This accolade came just weeks after Qatar Airways for the second year running captured the Skytrax ‘Best Business Class in the World’ award, giving travelers from Eastern Africa the assurance that while they might not get the cheapest fares in the market they get best quality in the skies for their money.
The survey has not yet taken into account, future surveys of course will, that the economy class cabin of the new Airbus A350XWB, which stands for Extra Wide Body, has introduced the widest seats available on commercial aircraft, with some 18 inches in width and a 32 inch pitch.
Combined with an inflight cabin comfort second to none compared to any other aircraft presently operating, which includes a new catering line and the latest technology of inflight entertainment, has the A350 set new standards which are certain to retain Qatar Airways the ranking when the next survey is published.
Said Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker when sharing the news: ‘Having received such prestigious honours for our Business Class, we are proud to be recognised for our commitment to all of our world travelers. Our vision has always been to create the world’s finest travel experience; in the air and on the ground, in every seat on every flight, for both business and leisure passengers. We are honored by this recognition and inspired to set new standards for our hospitable, 5-Star service’.
According to SKIFT’s Marisa Garcia was the decision reached by evaluating all aspects of the passenger experience, including their airline’s website, the economy cabin comfort, inflight meals, added perks (Wi-Fi, in-seat power, entertainment) and overall design of the cabin. While acknowledging the quality of previous passenger rating systems, SKIFT’s ground-breaking study set out to minimise bias and deliver a data-driven evaluation.
‘We chose a system which put the very subjective “BEST” in an objective context’ said Marisa before adding ‘We also wanted to consider the overall passenger experience point-to-point, and to give ratings which, though always subjective, could be justified as equitable’.
Qatar Airways presently serves Entebbe and Kigali on a daily basis and, considering the constantly high loadfactors, there has been speculation that more flights might be added soon. Nairobi is served twice a day, as is Dar es Salaam, with one of the flights routing via Kilimanjaro. At the launch of the Airbus A350XWB did the airline’s CEO express Qatar Airways’ continued interest to fly to Mombasa but put the ball firmly in the court of the Kenyan aviation authorities vis a vis traffic rights.
Passengers from the Eastern African countries can connect at Doha’s sparkling new mega airport Hamad International to a global network of destinations, including 7 in the US where QR serves Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas and Miami and plans to sooner rather than later adding the West Coast to it too.
Qatar Airways presently serves 146 destinations around the world with a fleet of 146 aircraft but has a further 340 aircraft on order, including 100 of the yet to be developed B777X and another 79 deliveries of the Airbus A350XWB, amounting to the staggering cost of over 70 billion US Dollars.
