[Anonymous]

[EKJW1000]

It looks like QR are to reduce their double daily to 10 weekly from 26/03/2012.

Any one heard anything about this?

Cheers

[LuganoPirate]

No, but it may be done to allow them to have some extra capacity on higher yielding routes.

[esselle]

My wife is in the air at this very moment having gone out MAN-DOH-MEL last week, due back in at MAN tomorrow lunchtime. The J fare on offer dwarfed anything available of more traditional routes, and her praise, which is not mormally easy to come by, for the service, F&B, transfer at DOH, comfort aboard the 777 onward from Doha, is fullsome. Full cabin all the way down. Let’s see what the return was like.

Given the amazing performance of EK out of MAN, let’s hope that QR manage to keep up some worthy competition.

[first_class_please]

Yes it is true.

New schedule from 26th march will be:-

Manchester – Doha
1000 – 1900 on Wed, Fri, Sun
1455 – 2355 daily

Doha – Manchester
0150 – 0730 on Wed, Fri, Sun
0745 – 1325 daily

Seems Emirates three times a day and Etihad twice a day is taking a toll on Qatar…

[MarkCymru]

As Esselle says, it is very good. The new fully-flat seats on the 777s are amazing: 2–2–2 so no middle seat (very unusual for a 777). Even the angled seats on the airbuses aren’t bad. The service is amazing — friendly, efficient and usually very well tailored to each passenger (they did wake me up once for a meal that I had already said that I didn’t want but that was a one-off). The business terminal in Doha is an excellent alternative to long walks through massive terminals with erratic priority for premium passengers. So much so, in fact, that I’m rather dubious about the opening of the new airport in 2013.

Let’s hope that LuganoPirate is right and that it is to free up aircraft rather than because of any weakness in demand.

Qatar is so much better than Emirates that I simply don’t understand why anyone would choose Emirates, especially with the 80s-style business class seats that seem to persist on so much of the EK fleet

[continentalclub]

The reasons for the change could be myriad perhaps the clue to the retrenchment does indeed lie in esselle‘s quote:

“The J fare on offer dwarfed anything available of more traditional routes….”

If a market doesn’t display demand or yield, then the price to the market will be often be reduced to stimulate demand. Once demand is established, prices can be firmed to deliver the yield requirement.

If reducing the price to the market doesn’t work, then the next step is often to reduce exposure to the market – and perhpas that’s what QR are doing, as many before have.

[esselle]

I am sure the competition from EK, who have really ramped things up over the last year and who now operate triple-daily, including an A380 service does play a part in this, particularly if flying over DXB to connect to another sector.

[continentalclub]

It’s quite possible, esselle; that and the fact that EK, AFKL, LHLX and BAIB all have a greater number/frequency of onward connections/codeshares from their respective hubs than QR do, with more opportunity in the latter three cases to earn within and across FFPs.

It’s likely to be a very complex set of reasons why QR may find other routes more profitable – if that is indeed the reason for reducing the Manchester frequency.

[Tappy84]

Moving capacity up to their new EDI service perhaps? Still only a rumour of course…

[first_class_please]

Don’t think QR are going to EDI. Emirates were the ones to announce a second daily flight to Glasgow.

[esselle]

My wife is safely back from her trip down under; she has done countless trips in F on BA but says the QR J product on the 777 is infinately preferable on space, bed comfort, easy sleep, AVOD etc. Service a bit clunky and less polished, but comfort and sleep score highly.
Now I need an excuse to try it!!

[Author]

Posts