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Qatar Airways‘ CEO, His Excellency Akbar Al Baker, is probably best known for his no-holds-barred attitude to dealing with aircraft manufacturers and his outspoken views on just about anything to do with the airline industry. But he’s also remarkably good at promoting his airline…or at least making sure his airline is in the news and relevant.
Mr Al Baker definitely isn’t shy about promoting his airline and it’s always interesting (sometimes amusing) to hear what he has to say…even if sometimes what he says is more spin than fact.
This is the CEO who claimed that the 10-across seating that Qatar introduced to its Economy Class cabin was comfortable, the CEO who claimed that the first (of two) delays to Qatar’s Auckland route was “as a mark of respect to Emirates” and the CEO who said that Qatar Airways would introduce a “super business class” seat by the end of 2016 (there is still absolutely no sign of it whatsoever).
Qatar’s New Route….Soon
Still, when His Excellency announces that Qatar Airways is going to be flying to a new destination it’s worth sitting up and taking notice. While not all the routes start up according to plan (Auckland and Sarajevo immediately spring to mind), Qatar does appear to follow through on most, if not all, of the routes it say it will fly….and now we have a new one.
The Qatar Airways CEO used a recent press briefing on a trip to Tuscany to announce the airlines intention of adding Florence to its network.
In a speech to local journalists Al Baker said:
Italy is an incredibly important destination in our network and we will keep investing in new routes and increased services in this market. Once the runway extension at Florence Airport is complete, we fully intend to start a service to this historic city, which is so important to tourism in the region.
Florence – Image courtesy of Mark Smith via Flickr
Florence would be Qatar Airways‘ 5th destination in Italy after Milan, Rome, Venice and Pisa and would offer European-based flyers yet another gateway from which to catch some of the fantastic Business Class fares Qatar likes to offer.
The airline already offers 42 weekly flights between Italy and Doha and the addition of Florence would almost certainly take that up to 49 – that’s a lot of flights!
A320 On The Way Out
In further good news the Qatar Airways CEO confirmed that the airline was looking to upgauge the aircraft that currently operate between Doha and Pisa:
We are also committed to upgrading the aircraft type currently flying to Pisa from an A320 to a wide body model as soon as we receive more aircraft in our fleet.
Pisa is the only one of Qatar’s Italian destinations that offers the narrow-body A320 aircraft (Milan and Venice have A330 service and Rome is served by 787 Dreamliners) and while the Business Class cabin on the A320 still offers fully lie-flat seats…..
Qatar Airways A320 Business Class
…they don’t really compare to the Business Class seats the airline offers on some of its wide-body aircraft:
Qatar Airways A350 Business Class
Bottom Line
Qatar Airways has been offering more and more great Business Class fares from its Italian cities over the past few months and this was never so evident as in the recent sale. Qatar Airways was offering Business Class fares from Pisa to the Middle East starting at under €900 and Business Class fares to Asia from under €1,100….and prices don’t come much better than that.
A fifth Italian destination will add even more capacity to a country that Qatar Airways already serves very well and the increased capacity will have to be filled somehow. Expect more great Business Class fares if and when this route goes ahead.
Featured image courtesy of Steve via Flickr
