While all airlines are announcing booking levels equivalent to those before the COVID-19 pandemic, announcements are multiplying at the moment in view of the summer season which starts in the next few weeks. Even if Air France just announced theextension of its medium-haul network, all airlines do not have the ability to extend quickly.
Qatar Airways announced last week a new service to Toulouse. Let’s take a look at this expansion of the Qatari airline, which continues its entry in major European cities.
A fleet strategy that allows flexibility
Unlike its main competitor Emirates, Qatar Airways has historically chosen a heterogeneous fleet, which shows a strategy quite different from its competitor.
Emirates currently has only two types of aircraft: the Boeing 777-300ER with between 354 and 442 seats depending on the configuration (2 or 3 classes), as well as the Airbus A380, with a larger capacity, between 484 and 615 seats depending on the configuration (2, 3 or 4 classes).
On the other hand, Qatar Airways has many types of aircraft in its fleet: single-aisle with the Airbus A320, and twin-aisle with the Airbus A330, A350 and A380 and the Boeing 777 and 787.
Qatar Airways is thus able to serve certain destinations more easily, and this is how the Qatari airline will be able to open Toulouse from July 18.
A similar strategy compared to Turkish Airlines
Even if the two airlines are not comparable in terms of products, the fleet strategy is nevertheless similar in some aspects. Even if Turkish Airlines has some large modules, they prioritze them primarily for long-haul destinations and prefers to deploy more frequencies with smaller aircrafts, including on Premium destinations such as Paris or London.
This strategy has allowed Turkish Airlines to open many cities in France such as Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille, and of course, Paris, Charles-de-Gaulle.
We can imagine that the strategy of Qatar Airways is also to multiply the destinations thanks to smaller modules. Nevertheless, it is an Airbus A330 that will be used on Toulouse, and not a single-aisle aircraft, at least at the beginning.
Head-on competition with the European majors, but especially with Air France
Qatar Airways is taking advantage of the relative vulnerability of European airlines to state regulations that will force them to restrict domestic services.
This is already the case in France for point-to-point services below a certain travel time by train, but it could happen even when there is a connecting flight.
Qatar Airways’ positioning in various European cities in France would allow it to take advantage of this regulation, which penalizes national airlines.
Moreover, the expansion of foreign airlines such as Lufthansa or British Airways in French airports has reflected this strategy in recent years.
Bottom line
There is no doubt that the new service of the Qatari airline will change the balance of long-haul traffic at Toulouse today, and potentially at other French airports tomorrow. We can imagine Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, and possibly with smaller modules than the Airbus A330.
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