Qatar Airways sees strong demand, but passengers are pickier

Qatar Airways sees strong demand as traveler numbers continue to surge after the pandemic but cautions that customers are becoming more selective in their bookings. 

Demand is still robust but “it’s not only catch up and revenge like before,” Chief Commercial Officer Thierry Antinori said in a Bloomberg TV interview, referring to the sudden wave of post-Covid travel after months of border closures.

Passengers are “more selective, they will look more cautiously for what they book, for the quality and the value of what they buy,” he said.

That trend should help strong airlines continue to grow and widen the gap with “second tier” carriers, Antinori said — a departure from a year ago, when all carriers benefited from supply bottlenecks. 

The Gulf carrier, which competes with Dubai-based Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, has seen traffic jump by 31% in the first two months of this year as it expands its network and benefits from a travel boom that’s pushing global and regional airlines to record profit. 

While the Doha-based airline has increased capacity into Europe, routes to Southeast Asia have lagged behind “because we have limited traffic rights and are in no position to sell more into Australia,” Antinori told Bloomberg on Wednesday.  

Qatar Airways’s access to Australia is restricted after a request to operate more routes to the country was rejected in 2023. The airline viewed the decision as unfair, since Qatar’s national carrier had helped repatriate citizens during the pandemic. 

In the meantime, regional rival Turkish Airlines made its Australia debut over the weekend via Singapore. It will launch direct flights from its Istanbul hub as it acquires more aircraft over the next few years, highlighting demand for long-haul services from the Middle East.   

As for Qatar Airways, “we just have to go somewhere else and balance the statistics between east and west,” Antinori said. 

He added that the airline would like to expand more to Mauritius and South Korea. The carrier may add a few more aircraft to its fleet, he said, but will also be selective as it looks to grow organically and leverage Oneworld partnerships.