Award-winning, controversial: The airline Qantas wants stopped

Unlike its United Arab Emirates competitors Emirates and Etihad, Qatar Airlines does not offer premium economy seating. In June 2023, Al Baker announced that the airline would no longer offer a first-class cabin after it retires its existing fleet of A380s. What Qatar Airlines does better than just about every other airline is business class.

The reason is its Qsuite cabin, launched in 2017 and described by Al Baker as a “first-class experience in business class”. Qsuite cabins feature a business-class seat that turns into a double bed for couples, with privacy panels that close to create a “room”. This comes on top of Qatar’s “dine on demand” service, allowing business flyers to choose mealtimes, and a wake-up express breakfast for those looking to max out their sleep time. In late August 2023 Qatar Airways hinted at a new version, Qsuite 2, that promises to lift the business-class stakes even higher, with details yet to be revealed.

Blue skies ahead

Rapid growth is projected. During the Arabian Travel Market conference in Dubai in May 2023, Al Baker outlined plans to expand the airline to 190 routes from the current 170, with up to 250 routes on the horizon. That depends on the delivery of new aircraft.

Following a legal stoush over paint-skin deterioration affecting Qatar’s Airbus A350s, which ended in an amicable settlement in the High Court in London in February 2023, the airline reinstated its order for 23 long-range Airbus A350-1000s and 50 A321neos. The first of those A350s arrived in May 2023, with the first of the A321neos scheduled to arrive in 2026.

In July 2023, the airline began taking delivery of nine Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft which were originally destined for Russia’s S7 Airlines, an order frustrated by sanctions. Qatar Airways has another 25 Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft on order, with deliveries expected from 2025.

Female passengers’ strip search generates huge negative publicity

In October 2020, 13 Australian women were removed from a Qatar Airways flight at the country’s Hamad Airport, taken to waiting ambulances and some of them stripped and subjected to invasive gynaecological examinations. It was a terrifying and humiliating experience and the women reboarded the aircraft in a state of acute distress. A newborn baby had been found alive, dumped in a waste bin in one of the airport’s toilets. According to a Qatari government statement, the discovery prompted an “immediate search for the parents, including on flights in the vicinity of where the newborn was found.”

Faced with worldwide outrage, the Qatari government promised a “comprehensive, transparent investigation” into the incident, saying it would share the results with other countries. The most visible outcome of that investigation has been a suspended jail sentence given to an airport official.

Early in 2023 commercial law firm Marque Lawyers launched a $10 million lawsuit against the Qatari government on behalf of five of the Australian women who were strip-searched. Filed in the Federal Court, the lawsuit originally named the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority and Qatar Airways, and later the Qatar Company for Airport Operation and Management. The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority is claiming sovereign immunity.

The incident has been cited by some as a reason why Qatar Airways should not be allowed to expand its operations in Australia. According to Qatar Airways, neither the airline nor the aircraft’s crew were told what was about to transpire when an armed security team boarded the aircraft and removed the women. Nor were they in a position to overrule them. When the women reboarded, the entire crew including the captain were reportedly shocked and appalled by what had transpired.

What are airline slots?

An airline slot is an agreement allowing an airline to operate flights to a particular airport at a specific time and day. Slot allocation only exists at level 3 airports, where the demand exceeds the airport’s infrastructure capacity, and so stricter management via slots is required (this is particularly an issue at Sydney Airport, due to its curfew). Airline slots are allocated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) according to the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines.

National bodies also have powers to affect slot allocation, for example where the national interest overrides the needs of a particular airline. That has been used by the Australian government to justify its decision to deny Qatar Airways’ application for expanded flights into Australia.

The extra capacity aboard those additional flights would have exerted downward pressure on international flight prices. Since that ran contrary to its interests, Qantas opposed the additional Qatar Airways flights and the government blocked the application. That decision is now the subject of a Senate inquiry.

While IATA does not sell slots, airlines can trade them. In 2016 Oman Air paid $US75 million to Air France/KLM for a set of slots at London’s Heathrow. Under normal operating conditions, the “Use it or lose it” rule applies. Airlines are required to use at least 80 per cent of their allocated slots, otherwise they risk losing them to other airlines. Since they’re a valuable commodity, an airline will sometimes operate a “ghost” flight, with fewer than 10 per cent of seats filled, simply to keep its slot.

Qantas has recently been accused of hoarding slots at Sydney and Canberra airports, cancelling flights that it could not operate economically and blaming weather or other factors beyond its control, enabling the airline to keep those slots.