Since the outbreak of COVID, Qatar Airways
has been stubbornly avoiding letting the pandemic
ruin its party. Even on its worst days, the
airline maintained at least 30 routes, and
is now putting pedal to the metal to rebuild
its previously robust network. But which widebody
will be tasked with this rebuilding? Not the
behemoth A380 or even the 777-300ER. For Qatar,
it’s all about the humble baby Boeing 787-8
Dreamliner.
While other Middle East airlines hunkered
down and committed to the biggest aircraft
around, Qatar has always had a more moderate
strategy. Its piecemeal fleet encompasses
everything from the A319 all the way up to
the A380.
In the mix are some popular types like the
A350, for which it was a launch customer…
for both the -900 and -1000 variants. It also
flies the A330-300, which, while not the latest
generation by any means, is undoubtedly a
proven aircraft.
But, within that mix are some odd choices
too. The A330-200, for example, was never
a popular plane. The A380 itself has been
well outpaced by modern competitors. And the
Boeing 787-8 has always been a bone of contention,
never selling as well as its bigger brother.
However, it now seems that, thanks to this
strategy of diversity within the fleet, Qatar
could soon get a jump on its neighbors. Helping
the airline greatly is the Boeing 787-8.
Emirates, with the world’s largest fleet
of Airbus A380s, has now found itself with
two choices – fly the biggest passenger
plane in the world, or the second biggest.
You see, when Emirates went big, there was
not a whisper of doubt in the mind of its
management regarding its strong hub and spoke
business model.
People wanted to fly further than ever before.
Dubai’s prime position equidistant between
the Far East and the West, with Oceania and
all of up-and-coming Africa at its feet, left
Emirates thinking it couldn’t possibly fail.
The only thing that could hurt it would be
an unprecedented aviation disaster, the likes
of which would overshadow 9/11 and the great
financial crisis.
Who’d have thought it would actually happen?
Now, with Airbus A350 and Boeing Dreamliner
deliveries not starting before 2023 and the
777X still two years away, the only thing
left for the airline is to keep on keeping
on with the A380, backed up by its expansive
fleet of 777-300ERs.
In fact, Emirates has fully committed to the
superjumbo, pledging to have the entire fleet
back in the skies by April 2022. That seems
somewhat optimistic, given most experts predict
a long, slow recovery, taking until 2023 or
2024 at least.
Across the Persian Gulf from Dubai, a mixed
fleet strategy now puts Qatar in a strong
position to come back from COVID. While the
airline has been clear that the Airbus A380
is not a sustainable prospect for its future
long-haul needs, unlike Emirates, it has options.
The Airbus A350 and the baby Boeing Dreamliner
will help the airline with its future long-haul
needs. Qatar is now flying its entire fleet
of 30 Boeing 787 aircraft, and is confident
that this low capacity, long-range plane is
just what it needs for a successful post-COVID
recovery. In his announcement about Qatar’s
future fleet strategy, CEO Akbar Al Baker
said,
“The 30 Boeing 787 aircraft in the Qatar
Airways fleet … provide appropriate capacity
to offer the right capacity on routes in Europe
while markets recover.”
The CEO said he’d crunched the numbers of
big planes like the A380 and said that “flying
such a large aircraft with a low load factor
does not meet our environmental responsibilities
or make commercial sense.” He wholeheartedly
believes that his young fleet of low capacity,
highly efficient Dreamliners will put his
airline ahead in the road to rebuilding aviation.
We think he could be right.
What about you? Share your thoughts in the
comments.
