Qatar Airways the big winner of 2021?

To say the least, Qatar Airways is a “special” airline which, before the COVID crisis, was the subject of much discussion.

Yes, Qatar Airways is one of the world’s top two or three airlines, with a top-quality product. Yes, they’re constantly improving their product. Yes, its president, Akbar Al Baker, has no tongue in cheek and never misses an opportunity to put his foot in it.

That’s for the tails side. The head side was much more worrying.

Qatar insulated before COVID

Reality or political game, Qatar has long been isolated within the OneWorld alliance, particularly with regard to American Airlines, with whom there is a latent war, to such an extent that the airline has long threatened to leave the alliance and concentrate on its own partnerships.

Even worse, Qatar Airways has been isolated by its Gulf neighbors: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and others have closed their skies to it for almost 4 years. As a result, the airline can no longer serve these destinations, feed its hub from these countries and fly over them, resulting in detours, longer flights and higher fuel consumption.

We wondered how Qatar could survive in such isolation from its partners and neighbors.

Qatar, exemplary during COVID

During COVID, the Qatari airline was examplary and bought itself a certificate of respectability.

By keeping its network as open as possible and actively participating in the repatriation of citizens of all countries stranded far from home, the airline has been one of the most active on the COVID front, helping many passengers and relieving many governments!

By maintaining a service with little or no deterioration in these difficult times, it has earned the esteem of passengers.

Taken together, these factors have helped Qatar Airways to become the world’s largest airline by summer 2020. This is a totally abnormal situation, but it reflects the Gulf airline’s determination to continue operating at all costs, with the highest level of health safety, to be there for those who want to and can travel, but also to be there to help the “COVID castaways” and play its “civic” role in the fight against the virus worldwide.

Qatar under full sail in 2021?

And so 2021 begins for an airline whose product quality has never been called into question, whose image has been enhanced by the past sequence, and which has also won the trust of passengers for whom it has been one of the only recourses.

The latest piece of good news for Qatar Airways: its neighbors have just decided to lift their sanctions. The skies over the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and many other countries will now be reopened to it.

What are the prospects?

Qatar Airways will be able to expand its network, re-propose certain destinations and thus attract more passengers.

Being able to take more direct routes without having to bypass his neighbors will save it a lot of fuel and money.

For passengers, this will add competition to certain destinations such as Dubai, mechanically driving down prices.

Bottom line

2020 was a tough year for everyone, but Qatar Airways managed to pull through. 2021 prospects look brighter but still uncertain, but Qatar looks set to benefit the most from the sector’s long but inevitable upturn.

Image : Boeing 787-8 Qatar Airways by Media_works via Shutterstock