[Ahmad]

I received the following mail from Qatar Airways this morning:

http://www.qatarairways.com/email/pvc/14/05/22/index.html

By the scanty information being provided, it appears certain that the lounges, barring perhaps the oryx lounge, will not be operational for some time. I wonder whether the duty free and restaurants are fully functional. Fortunately, I don’t have any plans at the moment to go through this airport either this month or the next and am not too worried about teething problems or lack of facilities. But I don’t envy others who have to use the airport during this period.

[first_class_please]

I will be transiting next week, June 4th, connecting to Business class and returning the following week connecting to First class.

Will let you know what happens, unless anybody else travels before then.

[LuganoPirate]

I hope you all end up in Doha with your baggage. The IATA code HIA is interestingly Huai’an Lianshui Airport in China, not Hamid International Airport. Can you have two airports with the same IATA designator?

[first_class_please]

Old and new airports will remain with IATA code DOH.

[LuganoPirate]

I took this from their website. It shows in several other places as well.

“Announcement of HIA operations for Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways will continue to fly to/from Doha International Airport until 27th May 2014 at 09:00hrs, after which we will be flying to/from Hamad International Airport (HIA) “

http://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/travel-alerts.page

[Ahmad]

LuganoPirate, This is what SiteAdministrator posted on 21/05/2014 at 20:48 GMT.

first_class_please, looking forward to your first hand account of what it is like. If you can, please find out how many lounges will finally be available and whether the airside hotel will be functional anytime soon. Wishing you a happy and safe journey.

[LuganoPirate]

My paste was in response to FCP Ahmad, but interesting the ICAO code has changed to OTHH from OTBD. Do you know if it’s a completely new airport, with new runways as well, or are they continuing to use the same runways and it’s just the terminal building that’s new?

[first_class_please]

Its just the terminal buildings that have changed, with new entry location to the site. Runways remain unchanged.

I imagine once all airlines move it will be Doha – Hamad International Airport as full name with DOH as still the IATA code.

Have to say i will not be at all impressed if there are no lounges to use during the transfer…

[PegasusAir]

f-c-p: Are you sure?.
When I went through there a couple of weeks ago it was described as a new airport with two new runways – the current airport has only one runway which is not part of the new airport. The new airport is some distance away further towards the sea on reclaimed land.

[Ahmad]

LuganoPirate, sorry I didn’t mean to nitpick. By the looks of it (as explained below), the new airport has new runways.

f_c_p & PegasusAir, sitting on the right hand side of the aircraft landing from the south at the old airport one gets a good view of the new one. From what I have been able to make out on several daylight landings in the past few months, the new airport has its own runways. The runways are also clearly evident on google maps and google earth.

[IstanbulWarrior]

I will be flying through HIA on 8th June. Will post a trip report soon after.

[esselle]

The whole airfield is new, and has no connection whatever to the old site.

[LuganoPirate]

No problem Ahmad, I didn’t think you were. I really wanted to post a link as well to the text from the website.

Mrs. LP passed through recently and told me definitely new runways, as confirmed also by Esselle above. I also checked Jeppesen and you can see the new runways which run parallel to the old ones.

Now of course two questions.
1. Will they close the old airport and redevelop it?
2. Which airline will be the first to accidentally land on the old runways???

[SimonS1]

You can see it clearly on Google Earth. There is even a road between the two airports.

[first_class_please]

Just received from our company Qatar Airways Sales Manager:-

Press Release:
http://www.qatarairways.com/english_qatar/press-release.page?pr_id=pressrelease_260514hia

The lounges that will be available from 27th May’14

i) QR First Class Lounge;

ii) QR Business Class Lounge;

iii) Al Maha Transit Lounge; and

iv) Oryx Lounge.

Hope it’s correct re the lounges.

[Author]

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