[onajetplane]

Qatar appears to have secured an additional slot and from end of October will have up x8 daily flights to Doha from LHR (albeit it looks like just on Saturdays). Coupled with Emirates recent securing of an additional LHR flight, it seems the demand for flights to/via the Gulf show no sign of abating! I recently read that Male is the top transfer destination for EK from LHR via Dubai – I wonder what tops the list for Qatar?

[AMcWhirter]

Hello onajetplane,

What you say about Male is interesting.

Do you have a link to the news piece ?

I say that because I would have thought the busiest transfer route (from LHR via DXB) would be a destination in SE Asia or India or even Australia.

Consider that EK provides more capacity DXB-BKK than it does for DXB-MLE.

Checking September 9 EK operates five flights DXB-BKK of which two are with A380s and three with 777-300ERs.

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onajetplane

[MarkivJ]

onajetplane, as of last September, male wasn’t even in the top ten of transit passengers from LHR flying QR. here’s the top 10. Kathmandu makes sense at no1 as EK doesn’t fly there

Heathrow over Doha to/from Kathmandu
Heathrow-Colombo
Heathrow-Dhaka
Heathrow-Bangkok
Heathrow-Sydney
Heathrow-Singapore
Gatwick-Bangkok
Heathrow-Denpasar Bali
Heathrow-Kuala Lumpur
Heathrow-Lahore

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onajetplane

[onajetplane]

Link to article: https://simpleflying.com/emirates-a380-operations-to-london-deep-dive/

If correct, the list of destinations with most transfer pax ex-LHR =

Male followed by Bangkok, Sydney, Colombo, Dhaka, Melbourne, Phuket, Mauritius, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

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AMcWhirter

[onajetplane]

And realise in relation to the Emirates top transfer destination list it was actually for their combined London operations and not just ex-LHR as I have previously written.

@MarkivJ – thanks! How strange Male (if that article is correct) sits atop of Emirates list and doesn’t even feature for Qatar. Also surely BA could fill a flight to Colombo based on these stats, albeit I guess it might be heavy on the leisure economy side and so not so feasible.

[AMcWhirter]

According to that report, if the UK is taken as a whole then India is #1 and Australia #2 during the period January to May 2023.

Interesting though and one wonders how these figures were obtained. I say that because sixth-freedom airlines do not like to release such information for commercial and political reasons.

The airports wouldn’t help because, as far as they are concerned, EK is just taking passengers to Dubai and no further.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Simple reason for EK being strong on MLE and QR not is the number of options / connections and schedules and the fact that for Leisure a lot of people 2 centre MLE with a stop in DXB (usually on the return). Not many people stop in DOH.

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onajetplane, AMcWhirter

[MarkivJ]

onajetplane – I’m not surprised about Male as compared to EK, QR doesn’t have a lot of frequencies to s Asian cities other than Thailand, etc. For example – both EK and EY serve BLR with 3x daily (EK’s one frequency is on A380) yet QR flies only 1x daily, etc.

When I was in male last Dec and was plane spotting, saw so many EK’s and flydubai’s come and go in a span of 4 hours – but only one daily QR rotation – and this was in peak Dec season!

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onajetplane

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Forgot to add – MLE has only been served year round with 3 direct flights this year. Before from circa April-October no direct flights and EK cleaned up. As they have multiple daily flights / connections available every single day – they have cleaned up with good client patronage who’d rather take EK via DXB than BA direct (if they happened to fly direct) at vastly better fares historically than BA (and a superior product in the Premium cabins until recently when BA put the Club Suite on). I have had repeat clients stick to EK as they love the product and options they get.

So totally understandable EK have such strength on MLE – and why VS are looking to muscle in on the market from this winter (as there are client who pay a decent Premium to go direct in the Premium cabins).

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onajetplane

[AndrewinHK]

The Saturday slots are being leased from Air Mauritius which gives QR, 3 arrivals into LHR before 7.30 am.

[cwoodward]

To my understanding the slot is one leased from Cathay for 6 months until 24th February 2024 who will not operate there 6th LHR slot until after that date. I have seen the signed and dated release copy from LHR operations on another industry website.

[AndrewinHK]

Cwoodward, I read the slots were coming from Air Mauritius. The slot is a 7.20 am arrival and a 4 p.m. departure, CX seems to have its 4 and 5 p.m. departures from LHR rostered through the winter, whereas Air Mauritius Saturday schedule is not available to LHR.

[cwoodward]

I have seen the signed document Andrew – The Cathay slot is daily until end Feb 2024 – if they use it.
The deal makes sense as Qatar is a significant Cathay shareholder holding 20% purchased from a HK shareholder a few years back.

Of course the Air Mauritius lease seems only to cover a total of just 8 Saturday flights this northern winter.
There look to be two different deals.

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AMcWhirter, AndrewinHK

[AndrewinHK]

Indeed makes sense, what doesn’t from a Qatar standpoint is CX leasing slots to Emirates, Al Bakar I’m sure isn’t best pleased about that.

[PHflyer]

Simply for info/clarification Doha/Kathamandu route is operated by Oman Air equipment not QR

[Author]

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