On DOH-FRA on the leased LATAM 359 a couple of weeks ago, J was 100% full. My littlest one who is 14 months old likes to walk the entire plane and say hello, so we took a walk. The front Y cabin was perhaps 30% full, whereas the rear Y cabin was rammed.

Usually tour group takes the back of the cabin... So maybe the tour group filling up. The seats...

I'm flying BKK-DOH in J on the 380 in a few days time and according to EF, business is packed (no free seats, but a few blocks, and it's J4, C0, etc), whereas at least 80% of the lower deck is blocked.

There are just a few available seats in the whole of economy, only on the upper deck. If that's anything like an indication of the loads, I really don't see how QR can afford all those daily flights to BKK.

As was mentioned in a post above, the QR marketing dept (if indeed there is one at all) seem to be dropping the ball in a major way.

Surely something's got to give in the not too distant future?

LA flies MUC-DOH?! lol

Although QR certainly are flying lots of empty seats around the world, it's safer not to confuse EF with reality.

My 90% blocked seats out of Doha at the weekend turned into a rammed Y cabin.

The poster is referring to QR leasing a few LATAM 359's and is casually being called the "LATAM 350's".

-A

thank God! For a minute you got me scared airlines went mad ;)

Most airlines are mad, mostly for not serving Dom Perignon in Y and J, but that is tangential to this thread.

-A

oneworld82 if you want more information look at https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qata...ch-2017-a.html.

They are better called as QATAM ;-)

Loads have dropped and so have yields, its very noticeable in some markets. Also QR lost some important markets especially UAE and Saudi. Future growth will be constrained without these markets, and the inability to overfly Saudi will make future growth into parts of Africa and South America not feasible.

Its important though not to judge on anecdotal evidence, if you always travel a route on a certain day of the week it can appear consistently full or consistently empty. Some other markets (e.g. Australia) can be very directional with half empty flights one way flying full the other.

Just to put things in perspective I looked at the public sources that publish route specific statistics to compare traffic for July/August/September of 2017 (first full 3 months post diplomatic crisis) and compared to the same months in 2016.

DOH-UK-DOH traffic
07/2017 = -1%
08/2017 = -1%
09/2017 = +2%

DOH-Australia-DOH traffic
07/2017 = +19.3%
08/2017 = +20.1%
09/2017 = Not Published yet

DOH-ATL-DOH traffic
07/2017 = +27.3%
08/2017 = -0.3%
09/2017 = +5.6%

DOH-DFW-DOH traffic
07/2017 = -13.2%
08/2017 = -12.2%
09/2017 = Not Published yet

I know this is a small sample and it doesn't take into account capacity or yield.

But, sadly, all our evidence is anecdotal: route analysis pulling in capacity, load and yields isn't going to fall into our laps. As you say, while passenger numbers alone are interesting, they tell us little about what is going on.

On the Saudi front, a week or so back there were rumours spinning round that KSA was going to allow overflights at a price - essentially fining QR rather than hamstringing its operations. But I heard no more about that last week in Doha.

Back to anecdote, but BA anecdote :D Last week's LHR DOH was weak in all classes (a joy in economy!) but rammed on the way back. That I think reflects November travel patterns, though perhaps more acutely than most years.

Ahhh QATAM
 

QR just updated my aircraft for DOH-MUC next week to the leased LATAM 359 seatmap. Oh well, I knew it was coming but still ... I was hoping to get the QR A350.

How was your experience On DOH-FRA?

Spin off thread?
 

Perhaps this should be the consolidated thread for all QR flights that go out 1/2 empty. I don't know about the rest but I get a certain joy when I step into a cabin & it's less than 50% full. More so when I'm seated in Y :)

So I just completed 4 sectors in Y this past weekend -

KUL-DOH
90% full in Y - departed at 2am so everyone just slept, it would have been an uncomfortable flight had it been daytime. I managed to swap for a bulkhead seat at the gate, so no complaints here!

DOH-BOS
Joyous flight, originally A350 sub for 787 & still with over 100 seats going out empty. Everyone had a row of 3 seats to themselves, and there were more than enough rows of seats!

BOS-DOH
85% full in Y - again a night time departure (departed BOS 7.30pm) but flying into daylight at DOH. Spots of empty seats scattered around, I moved to the last row of 2 seaters & there was a space by the window for my backpack & laptop. I informed the guy in my original row that I was moving & he had the entire row to himself, but later in the flight a big guy moved into my seat & my original seatmate just sat in his seat the entire flight.
If it were me, I would have fully maximized my poor man's business class/lie flat bed ;)

DOH-KUL
Another most Joyous flight, 35% full in Y & many of us had the middle 4 seaters to ourselves. We were in the rear Y cabin, & after takeoff the pax in the front Y cabin moved to the rear but by then all the 4 seaters were taken. Some settled in the 3 seaters at the rear & the rest had to make do with the 2 seaters by the windows. Night time departure (7.30pm) ensured most pax had a good night's sleep after the main meal service.

That is, except for myself. Guess the jet lag had already kicked in & I only managed to rest after I checked into the hotel in KUL.

Lastly, I find that most flights with light loads have better service. The cabin crew seem to be more relaxed & happy to oblige requests for drink top ups or extra snack etc. Case in point was DOH-BOS, couldn't have asked for a better set of crew on a flight.

But of course, sometimes u get a bum set of crew (like DOH-KUL last night). Unresponsive, not particularly friendly & didn't seem like most of them wanted to be there except for a nice European & Japanese flight attendant.

Ive been on a VS 747 from MCO - LGW with a load of 16 pax... there were more crew than pax!