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The main sporting occasions are known for their athleticism and the wonderful national pride shows of the host. A successful Olympiad or World Cup can go so far as to put a country on the map in terms of global recognition.
But those occasions are another story for airlines. They can be a drag on profits, potentially even generating losses, as lucrative business travelers and other non-event travel are postponed or abandoned altogether during those times.
That’s what Qatar Airways is preparing for when its namesake hosts the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup later this year, from November 21 to December 18.
“It’s a pain we’re going to have to endure, and it’s only for a 30-day era,” Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said of the sporting event at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK on Tuesday.
While Al Baker was saying the airline would lose cash matches, Qatar Airways will suspend flights or cut schedules to more than 30 destinations around the world. It will also renew its schedule at Doha airport to “free” zone for other airlines to upload flights to the World Cup, it went up. The destinations that will see less service are those to which few spectators are expected to travel to watch the matches, for example from countries that have not qualified for the cup.
Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Mogadishu, Somalia are among the destinations Qatar Airways will suspend the cup, according to Cirium schedules. At the same time, the airline will upload flights to other markets, adding Chicago O’Hare and Madrid. Overall, there will be 10% fewer international flights in November, at the start of the World Cup, than in last month.
The final number of flights Qatar Airways will suspend has been defined, Al Baker said.
Other Middle Eastern airlines plan to load flights to Doha the cut. Air shuttles will be presented from Dubai at FlyDubai, Kuwait City at Kuwait Airways, Muscat at Oman Air and Riyadh at Saudia. The additional flights will help alleviate what is expected to be a shortage of accommodation in Doha the event.
British Airways’ party at the London 2012 Olympic Games shows the financial implications for airlines. While its parent company, International Airlines Group, lost no cash in the games that took place in July and August of that year, IAG reported a significant drop in stake. profit: the amount an airline earns for carrying a passenger per mile or kilometre in the case of British Airways, as a result.
“The functionality of the quarter’s revenue was strongly impacted by the Olympic Games,” Enrique Dupuy de Lomé Chavarri, then IAG’s Chief Financial Officer, said in November 2012. “We knew that the Olympics were going to have a dilutive effect on revenue, on unit revenue. It’s not a volume query, it’s about the traffic merge.
What was less transparent was what British Airways gained from its sponsorship of the games. Its name and logo highlighted the Olympic Games, which then-chief executive Keith Williams said in 2012 helped improve British customers’ opinion of British Airways. What was less transparent was whether this translated into monetary advantages for the airline.
Qatar Airways is the official airline of the 2022 World Cup and its logo will also be featured on the occasion. The monetary cost of the occasion, beyond the “pain” discussed through Al Baker, is still clear.
But losses would not be a problem for Qatar Airways. The Qatari airline is state-owned, rather than the stock exchange as IAG was, and is part of the country’s comfortable strength in the world. less vital to the airline than the global exposure that the World Cup will enjoy.
“The World Cup will be a marketing springboard to firmly position Qatar on the tourism map and make the destination known and considered,” Berthold Trenkel, managing director of Qatar Tourism, said in April.
Qatar Airways has also noted a strong recovery from the pandemic. Al Baker said the airline has increased its market share with travelers by continuing to provide global connectivity during widespread pandemic closures in 2020. Many other airlines grounded most of their planes, especially those on long-haul foreign flights, at the time.
And demand remains “strong,” especially in markets where restrictions have been relaxed, Al Baker said. Demand is so strong that the airline had to temporarily resume flight of its largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, despite its view that the plane was its “biggest mistake,” a view reiterated through Al Baker on Tuesday, to satisfy the market.
Tags: british airways, qatar airways, world cup
Photo credit: Qatar Airways braces for “pain” at FIFA World Cup in Doha. Qatar Airways
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