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| Sunday, 11 May 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Aggressive growth plans on the cards for Qatar Airways by Pelham Juriansz Danny Schepers, a young Belgian, has been appointed Manager for Qatar Airways in Sri Lanka with immediate effect. He is a graduate in Marketing and Sales and joined the airline business in 1990. Having been employed with the largest Belgian tour operator, Sunair, he gained the expertise to manage various tour operating programmes. This expertise held him in good stead, and he moved to the airline industry, joining the Belgian flag carrier Sabena. His responsibilities as a Country Manager for Sabena took him to Africa and numerous European destinations. He joined Qatar Airways in March 2003. Qatar Airways is one of the world's fastest growing airlines, and has continued to record positive growth in its last financial year ending March 31, 2003, even in the face of a depressed international aviation market. Schepers said that Qatar Airways will build on its reputation for premium service, and has already launched an aggressive growth plan to ensure it can offer people a greater choice of destinations, more flights, and the latest in-flight products and services. As part of the plan, the airline hopes to extend its route network to 50 destinations by the end of the year. Being the national carrier for the State of Qatar, the airline is currently undergoing a period of growth, and hopes to compete with Emirates and Dubai as a hub for activity in the Middle East. Covering 40 destinations worldwide, the airline currently has a fleet of nine Airbus A300-600Rs, nine Airbus A320-200s, one Airbus Corporate-Jetliner AC 319 and four Airbus A330-200s. The European destinations covered by Qatar Airways are London Heathrow, Manchester, Munich, Paris, Milan and Frankfurt. Flights to Rome will begin on June 16. Its Middle Eastern destinations are Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Cairo, Damascus, Amman, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Khartoum, Kuwait, Muscat, Riyadh, Sanaa, Sharjah and Casablanca. "On the Indian Subcontinent, the destinations we are interested in are Colombo, Karachi, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Lahore, Peshawar, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Kochi, Male and Mumbai," Schepers said. Even during the Iraq war, Qatar Airways flights did not face any problems, he said. The special features of the airline include First Class flat-beds and 169 degrees Business Class sleeper beds on the A330s. All classes on the A330s have personal video screens providing many video channels. The First and Business Class passengers on other aircraft are offered personal 'Sony Watchmans' with access to a video library with more than 20 titles. Chauffeur-driven BMW transfers are available for certain tier 'Privilege Club' members. Qatar Airways currently has a reciprocal agreement with Lufthansa 'Miles and More' programme and the 'Virgin Flying Club'. The airline employs 2,100 personnel. "With the peace process in effect and a ceasefire in operation, it is envisaged that we could improve the service in Sri Lanka," Schepers said. He added that subsequent to the introduction of their eighth and ninth flights this summer, the goal of the airline is to offer two daily connections from Colombo to Doha in the near future. The airline also hopes to expand its fleet, which currently stands at 23, to 28 by the end of this year. |
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