The political problems in the Middle East will not delay the start of the new Qatar Airways services from Cardiff Airport, a senior executive for the airline has said.
The carrier is operating 90% of its normal flights with only those services to some neighbouring states affected, vice president for northern Europe Glen Mintrim said.
Speaking at a briefing for businesses in Cardiff yesterday, Mr Mintrim said: “We’re operating fully as normal apart from the four countries affected. Our operations are running at 90% of normal.
“We’re not expecting any impact in schedules or airline planning. For example, just last week we had our Dublin launch which started and went off as planned. So it’s business as usual.”
Andrew Mitchell, former diplomat and now director of global strategy and advisory agency M-Insight, added: “In international relations these issues do come and they go again.
“Since I started flying Qatar Airways out of Kathmandu 20 years ago we’ve had two Gulf wars, among other things. During that time Qatar Airways has continued to expand as an airline and will reassess, reconnect and continue to grow when the opportunity and demand is there.
“I don’t want to minimise the politics around this, it’s clearly a very important and serious issue, but such is the interconnectedness of the world today and the importance of airlines as part of that supply chain that the future continues to look positive and bright.”
Speaking to CNN earlier in the day, Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the blockade by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain was a “huge challenge” for the airline and was “unprecedented in the history of aviation.”
He added: “Neighbouring countries have blockaded a country by land, sea and air which of course will create a big impact for Qatar Airways.”
Mr Al Baker said there were options for dealing with the crisis but added he was not prepared to discuss them in front of a camera.
'Exciting' schedule
Mr Mintrim gave no date for when the new service from Cardiff would start, but Cardiff Airport chairman Roger Lewis indicated that it could be in place in about a year's time.
He also suggested that the schedule would be “very exciting” and that potential passengers would “not be disappointed” by the frequency.
When services do begin they could be operated with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner airliner. Qatar flies a fleet of 200 aircraft including Airbus 380s, 320s and 350s and Boeing 737s, 777s and 787s.
It serves 157 destinations around the world with another 26 being added during 2017-18.
It is the third largest cargo airline in the world and Cardiff Airport chief executive Deb Barber said there would be big opportunities for Cardiff to develop as a cargo airport.
Mr Lewis would not reveal how much money had changed hands to secure the airline’s coming to Cardiff Airport, saying the matter was “commercially sensitive.”
Significant new markets
The arrival of Qatar Airways is expected to open up significant new markets for the airport. Last year more than 1.42 million people travelled from Wales and the south west of England to destinations on the Qatar network, with 90% of those passengers making the three hour journey to fly from a London airport.
Half of that number flew to Asian destinations with Australasia, the Middle East and Africa being the other main markets.
The new Qatar services are expected to be particularly popular with business travellers, people visiting family members in south Asia, overseas students, migrant workers from west Africa and holidaymakers visiting Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.
Cardiff Airport now serves more than 1.41 million passengers and is predicted to grow passenger numbers by a further 10% over 12 months.
It has direct services to more than 50 destinations including 11 major hub airports.
