Uncertainty remains over Hamad International’s opening date

07 May 2013

Qatar Airways’ CEO says opening date of Doha’s new international airport is still undecided

Uncertainty surrounding the opening of the New Hamad International airport is growing following the 1 April delay.

Akbar al-Baker, chief executive officer of Qatar Airways, the manager and operator of the new airport, remains unclear as to when exactly the airport will be formally opened following the decision to postpone the planned soft opening in early April.

Al-Baker said he cannot give an exact date, but added that the airport should be operational “by the end of this year”.

He added that the delay is impacting Qatar Airways’ growth. “The delay to this airport is costing us heavily financially, because we cannot expand further,” he said at a press conference held in Dubai.  

“In addition, we cannot give the quality of service we want to give our passengers in our airports that reflect the high quality of inflight service and products we offer to our customers.”

The new airport was meant to partially open in April, with 10 airlines moving their operations to the facility. Plans were halted by Qatar’s civil defence department, which said Hamad International had not met newly introduced safety and security requirements.

Qatar Airways has ambitions to become one of the world’s top 10 airlines, in terms of passenger traffic, in the coming years and is ramping up its global network.

Meanwhile, Al-Baker said the airline will be launching routes to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Philadelphia in the US, and Clark International airport in the Philippines before the end of this year. The airline is also increasing the number of flights it offers to Pakistan destinations Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar from June this year.

Qatar Airways has also resumed flying two of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The airline was forced to ground its fleet by a directive from US aviation authorities following safety concerns. 

The remaining three Boeing aircraft will return to service in the coming weeks and Al-Baker said Qatar Airways would accept deliveries of further Dreamliners in the next month.

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