Cardiff to Doha passenger numbers are 'disappointing', admits Qatar Airways boss
Akbar Al Baker says route is ‘still not performing as we expected it to’
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Eleven weeks after Qatar Airways launched flights between Cardiff Airport and its hub in Doha, the airline’s chief executive has expressed disappointment with how well the flights are attracting passengers.
Akbar Al Baker told The Independent: “Cardiff is still not performing as we expected it to perform. We are giving it time. We are hoping Cardiff will come around, passenger-wise. Air freight-wise, it’s doing absolutely well – there’s a lot of air-freight demand in and out of Cardiff.”
Cardiff Airport was bought by the Welsh Government for £52m in 2013. Its most recent figures showed an annual loss of £6m.
The airport narrowly won the new route to and from Doha in competition with nearby Bristol. Mr Al Baker told the BBC in March: “We had competition between Wales and Bristol and Wales won.”
The connection with Doha has had wide-ranging benefits. South Wales is now one stop from New South Wales and the rest of Australia, with Bali, Bangkok and 150 other destinations available to travellers.
The launch, on 1 May, also put Cardiff on the map in many other parts of the world, making it accessible from China, India and Africa with a single change of plane.
It is unusual for an airline chief executive to comment on a new route other than to say it is performing in line with expectations.
In common with other airlines, Qatar Airways keeps its performance figures for individual routes confidential. For the coming weekend, demand – and fares – are very high. But the airline will be looking keenly at forward bookings.
Comparing the airline’s fares from Cardiff with those from other UK airports, such as Manchester, prices are often lower from Wales. To Mumbai on the Saturday before Christmas and returning a fortnight later, for example, the prevailing fare from Manchester is almost 50 per cent higher than from Cardiff. But Mr Al Baker said: “It is a long-term investment, and we will wait and see how the Cardiff flights will rebound.”
He added: “The rest of the network in the UK is doing good."
The Qatar Airways chief executive has also warned travellers looking ahead to Christmas 2022 to book early, because of the reduction in the supply of seats caused by Qatar’s staging of the World Cup in November and December of that year.
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