Mauritius should come very soon: According to this article (in French) from June 2007, they were already recruiting at that time. They had been negotiating for traffic rights since 2006.
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Mauritius would be a nice addition indeed, but in other respects I would appreciate if they would find the time to improve their lousy ground service and punctuality instead of expanding, expanding, expanding.......
Tokyo (NRT) would make a good addition. Neither EY or EK fly there, and there is no direct air link between Tokyo and the Gulf. I see high load factors straight away.
Qatar Airways is a good airline that is easily one of the 'majors' in the world now. Although it flies to several destinations not served by Emirates (e.g. Berlin, Luxor, Newark, Washington, Dar es Salam, Guanghzou, Seoul, Najpur, Katmandhu, Denpasar, Cebu, Ho Chi Min City, Mashad, Madrid) it flies to a secondary airport in North America, flying to Newark not New York-JFK (edited from Newark, sorry my mistake). Also lack of Australasian services in comparison to Emirates.
Last edited by directorguy_; Jan 23, 08 at 10:38 am.
Qatar Airways is a good airline that is easily one of the 'majors' in the world now. Although it flies to several destinations not served by Emirates (e.g. Berlin, Luxor, Newark, Washington, Dar es Salam, Guanghzou, Seoul, Najpur, Katmandhu, Denpasar, Cebu, Ho Chi Min City, Mashad, Madrid) it flies to a secondary airport in North America, flying to Newark not Newark. Also lack of Australasian services in comparison to Emirates.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by directorguy_
Qatar Airways is a good airline that is easily one of the 'majors' in the world now. Although it flies to several destinations not served by Emirates (e.g. Berlin, Luxor, Newark, Washington, Dar es Salam, Guanghzou, Seoul, Najpur, Katmandhu, Denpasar, Cebu, Ho Chi Min City, Mashad, Madrid) it flies to a secondary airport in North America, flying to Newark not Newark. Also lack of Australasian services in comparison to Emirates.
It flies to places that people want to go to.. and it's website is one of the easiest around in buying tickets.!
Australia? Soon... when it gets proper aircraft...
So go with EK. QR's service is sooo much better than EK IMO, but what would I know? I'm only a Silver Q member!
Yes, but most of those destinations aren't really 'major' cities, as opposed to QR missing out on key regional gateways that EK serves. QR should concentrate on building a nice Australasian network (and who knows, maybe a service to some Oceanian island in the Pacific) and it would be able to fully compete with EK.
Beginning March 31, Doha-based Qatar Airways will become the first airline from the Gulf to serve Guangzhou. It will operate four flights-a-week non-stop using an Airbus A330 aircraft in a two-class configuration of up to 24 seats in Business Class and a maximum 248 in Economy.
The addition of Guangzhou strengthens Qatar Airways' China network, where it already flies to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong with a total of 16 flights a week. Guangzhou takes the airline's capacity into China up to 20 flights a week. From May 1, Qatar Airways adds a fifth weekly service to Guangzhou.
Melbourne not this year, but Houston to start in 2008:
Quote:
Non-availability of long-range aircraft for the time being means that Qatar Airways' plans to fly to Australia will have to wait, at least until next year.
The airline will, however, be definitely flying to Houston from later this year and will be concentrating on its North American routes. The airline is not in a hurry to start operating to Melbourne in Australia and in fact there has been no official announcement the route will be started up. However, Qatar Airways has received the nod from the Australian authorities to operate daily flights to Melbourne.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by directorguy_
Tokyo (NRT) would make a good addition. Neither EY or EK fly there, and there is no direct air link between Tokyo and the Gulf. I see high load factors straight away.
Totally agree with you. There is a reason why EK or EY don't fly to Tokyo. Slots. Tokyo is perhaps one of the highest sought after destinations in the world. EK have already sidelined a set of A380s for NRT flights & they don't even fly there. Japan performs very well for EK. NRT would work even if EK, QR & EY all starting flights there. & then there's the cargo potential...
Quote:
Originally Posted by directorguy_
Yes, but most of those destinations aren't really 'major' cities, as opposed to QR missing out on key regional gateways that EK serves. QR should concentrate on building a nice Australasian network (and who knows, maybe a service to some Oceanian island in the Pacific) and it would be able to fully compete with EK.
What's the point in competing when you can carve out a more profitable market which has a bonus of no competitors. Yes, there are many merits of links down under, but the competition is huge. On the Kangaroo route, it's not just EK they'd have to deal with. Traditionally, the Asian carriers are the primary dealers on these flights, SQ in particular. BA/Qantas are big too. I'm sure it's in the pipeline but it's all about timing.
