AIRLINES
GOING THE
E XTRA MILE Qatar Airways’ VP of Sales for Europe, Thierry de Bailleul, tells Business Traveller how the airline has negotiated the pandemic and aviation crisis
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t’s been a torrid time for the aviation industry, which this year will burn through between U$75-95 billion after 2020 when demand dropped by nearly 66 per cent worldwide. The crisis saw the failure of some carriers, while many others have been reliant on government help to survive, and industry body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts it will be 2021 before traffic recovers. Qatar Airways has continued flying during the pandemic, though at the worst point its worldwide list of destinations fell to about 30. It is now on the rebound, flying to more than 120. For many of us who are forbidden from travelling, it may seem surprising there are enough passengers to make it worthwhile. Qatar Airways VP of Sales Europe, Thierry de Bailleul, told me that while cargo is making a bigger contribution to the airline’s revenue than normal, there are still passengers flying. Some are visiting friends and family overseas and are prepared to undergo the tests and quarantine necessary and then there is essential business travel, where he gave me the examples of ships’ crew and people who work on oil platforms. Still, is it profitable? “We cover at least our operational costs. It may not pay the whole costs, the structural costs and so on, but between the passenger revenue and the cargo we make sure that every flight is economically justified,” he reveals.
WORDS TOM OTLEY Throughout the pandemic, the airline has “In economy the face masks are not enough, taken the opportunity to show current and so we offer face screens. All crew cover their potential customers how reliable the airline uniforms and menus that normally are re-used is compared to its competitors. are disposed of and we present new ones on “We schedule the flights and do every flight. Our catering has not changed, but everything possible to keep that schedule it is sealed, and many other things [have been stable. We don’t like to cancel, especially at introduced] such as the ultraviolet robots, the last minute. Our customers don’t like it, which clean the cabins to exterminate germs. our trade partners, the travel management “I’m not saying there are zero cases, but we companies, don’t like it, because it gives are one of the few airlines that has published them extra work for no the numbers, for crew and payment and so we do passengers. The rate of everything it takes, even infection for pax is 0.002 if it’s costly, because we per cent, which is far think it’s all about trust and less than in the streets of reliability,” says De Bailleul. London or Paris or Madrid. Where there is not “It’s safer to fly with a enough demand to justify safe airline like us than the flight, then Qatar being in the normal living Airways cancels the flight circumstances wherever well in advance so it doesn’t we are.” affect many passengers and The COVID crisis has also reroutes them. not only altered airline Thierry de Bailleul De Bailleul believes priorities and practices, but the route to recovery also those of passengers too. “I strongly believe provides opportunities, “I strongly believe the behaviour of provided airlines can that the behaviour of our our customers is convince people that flying customers is changing in in the era of COVID is quite a spectacular way,” changing in quite a safe. So, is it safe? says De Bailleul. “Before spectacular way” “Absolutely, yes, it is,” he it was all about price and says. “We have the right to that’s still important, speak about this because we [but] now it’s service, the have flown so much in the last 12 months. reliability that we have We have gone the extra mile. Some spoken about and the people were saying ‘Do you criteria of safety measures of think it is too much?’, but then each airline. Airlines are not all the new variants came along equal on safety measures, quality and they changed their mind. of service and reliability.” M AY-J U N E 2 0 2 1
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