Qatar Airways is increasing the frequency of its Gatwick flights next summer to three times daily.
The carrier returned to Gatwick in May 2018 after a seven-year gap.
Initially there were rumours that the slots, which had come from BA-owner IAG, were on a temporary basis. Speaking with Business Traveller in May, Al Baker denied this and said the service was here to stay,
The decision was then made to increase these twice daily flights to 16 flights weekly
Speaking at the launch of the new flights to Da Nang in Vietnam, Al Baker said.
“Gatwick is doing very well. You know it is very difficult to get slots at London Heathrow, even though my country owns a 20 percent stake at the airport. It is absolutely saturated, so for this reason and because of the huge demand and growth in London we decided to start with two frequencies per day, keeping in mind that never in the history of Qatar Airways have we launched a double daily.”
Al Baker said that as a result of the “…huge demand for the destination and beyond with our partnership with British Airways, we felt it needed additional capacity.”
Now, according to Routes Online, the airline is planning to further increase the service to three-times daily over the summer (21 weekly flights), with a slight reduction into the winter season with 18 times weekly flights.
Another service in the spotlight is that to Cardiff.
Announced in 2017. the service was the first to connect Wales and the South-West directly to a Gulf aviation hub.
Numbers have been improving on the route
And in the latest figures discussed in a piece on Wales Online, it seems things are continuing in the right direction.
How many passengers have flown on Qatar Airways’ Cardiff to Doha route?
Nevertheless, Al Baker is still not satisfied, and told Business Traveller.
“We expect it to be stronger. It is still too slow in getting where we want it to be, and is not performing to our expectation.”
Al Baker added, however, that “We are still persevering and hope it will pick up in the not too distant future.”
